Staff Board of Trustees
Reaching Heights inaugurated the Friend of Public Education Award in 2002 to call attention to the importance of citizen action and the remarkable impact an individual can make on the success of our students and our schools. The award is presented at the Annual Adult Community Spelling Bee.
The Reaching Heights Friend of Public Education Award recipients for 2007 are Don and Donalene Poduska, long time Cleveland Heights residents, public school activists, and founders of the Reaching Heights spelling bee!
Susie Kaeser, Reaching Heights Executive Director, made the award at the 16th annual, Reaching Heights Adult Community Spelling Bee, held on April 24, 2007.
In making the award she explained,
“Reaching Heights created the Friend of Public Education Award to call attention to our core belief – that the public is responsible for the success of its public schools and that each of us can contribute to their success.
“Tonight we are honoring two people who have shared their time and talent to support our schools. We are especially grateful to them for helping to establish our spelling bee as a much anticipated and enjoyed community event, and a reliable resource for grants to teams of teachers, parents and staff in our schools. These grants have been a huge resource over the years for our teachers and students. The BEE makes this possible and our Friend of Public Education Award recipients have been integral to the success of the bee.”
Donalene Poduska, was a founding trustee of Reaching Heights and chaired the committee that planned the very first spelling bee. Don Poduska, professor emeritus of Classical Languages at John Carroll University, was the official word pronouncer for the last 12 bees and helped set the tone for the event..
Previous receipients of the Reaching Heights Friend of Public Education award include Jim Vail, Vicki Copeland, Maryann Barnes, Calvin Singleton amd Amy Jenkins.
