Bojangles donates books to honor Upstate teachers

First, congratulations to those teachers who have been selected as Teachers of the Year by their peers in those schools where that is the process.

Second, congratulations to Bojangles for recognizing the value of great teaching and for its donation of books to the honored teachers.

This note in today's Spartanburg Herald-Journal identifies that county's teachers of the year and gives credit to Bojangles for its participation:

Recently Bojangles' presented hundreds of books to local District Teachers of the Year. This donation event was one of 16 planned for this year, and is part of Bojangles' ongoing partnership with South Carolina Future Minds, which is designed to support teachers across the state who make a positive impact on their students and the future of South Carolina through their commitment to education.

Teachers honored at the event included: South Carolina School for the Deaf and Blind (SCSDB) Teacher of the Year Carrie Ramella works with ninth through 12th graders in the deaf high school on speechlanguage therapy. She has an undergraduate degree from Columbia College and earned her Masters of Communication Sciences and Disorders from the University of South Carolina.

Spartanburg School District One Teacher of the Year Laura Dickson teaches physical education at O.P. Earle Elementary School in Landrum and says that the rising epidemic of obesity in our children motivated her to become a P.E. teacher. It is Dickson's hope that their experience in elementary P.E. will lead to a lifetime of health and wellness.

Spartanburg School District Two Teacher of the Year Patricia Hardee is employed at Boiling Springs Elementary School, where she teaches third grade. Hardee believes that, as a teacher, she has the power to transform lives, encourage, teach and love children for the majority of their day. She finds this to be an awesome responsibility and one that she takes great pride in.

Spartanburg School District Three Teacher of the Year Veronica Carroll tries to inspire her fifth grade math students at Cowpens Elementary School by creating an exciting classroom. She works to create a love of math for her students through the use of music, rap and hands-on activities. Carroll loves when she is able to teach a student something they thought they could not do or that was confusing to them at first.

Spartanburg School District Four Teacher of the Year Tina Harrell is the library media specialist at Woodruff Middle School where she believes the best part of her job is learning alongside her students.

Spartanburg School District Five Teacher of the Year Christy Emerson believes that building a strong literary foundation for her first grade students at River Ridge Elementary School will help them succeed in other areas of academic instruction. She considers her ability to create an environment where children love learning as one of her greatest accomplishments. Emerson refers to her first grade students as “Super Kids” and strives to help them become the best they can be.

Spartanburg School District Seven Teacher of the Year Nancy Crowe teaches adapted physical education at McCarthy Teszler School in Spartanburg and enjoys inspiring her awesome and unique students to turn their disabilities into abilities.

“Bojangles' is proud to continue its support of education in the Palmetto State,” said Bojangles' President and CEO Randy Kibler. “Partnering with South Carolina Future Minds and the Teacher of the Year program for the third consecutive year gives us the opportunity to thank South Carolina's outstanding teachers for their dedication to the nearly 700,000 students currently enrolled in the public education system.” This year Bojangles' will be donating nearly 3,000 books in honor of District Teachers of the Year.

Should Bojangles assume government functions?

I'm imagining walking into a South Carolina classroom in the near future and seeing corporate logos on the doorways, windows and walls, the same way they festoon NASCAR racers. For example, "Today's lesson is brought to you by Fruit Roll-Ups." Or "Just do your best on the test: Nike." How about: "Drop those heavy books and pick up a Kindle."

Sounds farfetched? We already have corporate sponsorship advertisements on soft drink machines in high school common areas, and billboards ringing our sports fields and arenas.

Do we wonder why? It's due, in largest part, to the fact that corporate sponsors give funds -- in exchange for the rights to advertise to children in schools -- that our lawmakers choose not to give.

Everyone has seen some version of a bumper sticker that has made the rounds for a generation; it says, roughly, Imagine the day when schools have all the resources they need, and the Pentagon holds a bake sale to buy more jets.

No one is advocating weakening national defense, but the sentiment is sound. At the state level, our government leaves such a deep hole in education funding year after year that district school boards can only say yes when corporate interests come offering slight donations, regardless of the conditions.

So educators should be grateful, I suppose, when concerned businesses like Bojangles raises $20,000 from its customers for state teachers and public education, as reported this week.

More than 100 company-and franchise-operated restaurants across the state held a two-week in-store fundraiser where customers purchased $1 and $5 paper apples to honor teachers who made a difference in their lives.

Wednesday, the money raised was donated to South Carolina Future Minds, a nonprofit organization dedicating to supporting education.

Camden Middle School's Lori Cooper, who happens to be the 2010-2011 Kershaw County was selected from the thousands of teachers honored online and in Bojangles' restaurants during May's Teacher Appreciation Month Celebration and awarded with a five-night Caribbean cruise.

"In times like this where budget considerations or budgets are tough its wonderful to see a company reaching out and appreciation teachers and showing us that what we do really matters," said Cooper.

I love a two-piece dark dinner with dirty rice and iced tea as much as the next one, but I suspect Bojangles got the better end of this deal. How far do we imagine that $20,000 will go in filling the hole left by lawmakers? Not far. But advertising time on broadcast networks is expensive, and I bet several newscasts have already mentioned, or plan to mention, the effort made by the chicken chain to help our children.

Certainly, I thank Bojangles for making the effort.

But in an ideal world, our lawmakers would meet students' resource needs in the state budget, and whatever our business community wanted to do would be like the icing atop a Bo-Berry biscuit, not the biscuit itself.