Thumbs up to the Educator of Year

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1:05 PM Friday, October 30, 2009

Here are this week’s  “thumbs up” and “thumbs down” selections:

Thumbs up and congratulations to Hamilton’s Educator of the Year — Carie Tregesser, a fifth- and sixth-grade teacher at Ridgeway Elementary School. She was among 21 outstanding teachers in Hamilton’s public and parochial schools to be nominated by their peers, and was honored at the seventh annual “Hamilton Celebrates Education” banquet on Oct. 22. Tregesser won a $3,000 honorarium for Ridgeway at the event, which is sponsored by the Hamilton Community Foundation and local philanthropist Harry T. Wilks.

Thumbs up to Central Elementary School in Fairfield where the first “Girls on the Run” program has been started in the school district. Girls on the Run is a nonprofit group that encourages preteens to develop self-respect and a healthy lifestyle through running, staff writer Lindsey Hilty explains. Twelve participants meet twice a week for practice that includes curriculum on self-esteem and positive mental and physical development, while they train for a 3.1-mile running event. Scholarships for the program were provided by The Power of the Purse, a women’s group in West Chester Twp. Each girl received a pair of running shoes and other items.

Thumbs up to Shane Adams and his family, who are working to restore their business, Brewer’s Coffee Shop, after it was heavily damaged in an arson fire last March. The shop, on East Avenue in Hamilton, has been in business there around 70 years, says Sylvia Adams, Shane’s mother. Staff writer Richard Wilson described the family’s restoration project in a story Oct. 29. “If we would have torn it down, it would have been another open lot in Hamilton,” Shane Adams said. “I think the city has got enough of those.” We appreciate the family’s commitment to Hamilton, and hope business is brisk when they re-open sometime in November.

And finally, a ghoulish “thumbs up” to all the youngsters who will be out this Halloween night, trick-or-treating in their neighborhoods. Be careful and don’t eat all that candy tonight. To motorists: Be extra cautious tonight and help make this an enjoyable holiday for all the little goblins.

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