Pet Teachers

They taught us more than what the textbooks offered. They taught us how to think. They taught us what we could do. They taught us why we could believe in ourselves—because they did.

They took time and gave it to us. Often when that meant they had less for themselves. They encouraged us. They sacrificed more than we knew and maybe more than we will ever appreciate. Even so, we want to thank them for all they did.

Not just for us. But those who came before us and those who followed after. We wish we could tell them how much they meant to us and we hope we can say thank you to some of them.

Mr. Betz was the Principle Principal. He set standards that influenced our lives. Mr. Showalter, Mrs. Bond, and the one who planted the seeds of what became my passion—Gary "Mac" MacMillan.

He understood what I needed and gave me time to search for myself. He opened the worlds of theater and words. And today I'm a writer, in part because he gave me what I didn't deserve. And he's part of my story—how a little boy who couldn't read became a teenager who should have flunked English who became the 2007 Sherwood Eliot Wirt Writer of the Year.

I don't know who's holding your ladder. I don't know who packed your parachute. But I remember who gave me a second chance.