By Rafael Lima
As part of an annual tradition, members of the Rotary Club of Richmond dropped into Peres Elementary School on Wednesday to present $100 checks to every one of the school’s 31 teachers.
The checks are a symbol gratitude and support for teachers in the classroom, said Jan Brown, Rotary Club of Richmond president.
“Thank you for being in the trenches, and for being in the most noble of professions,” Brown told the teachers Wednesday. “We are very grateful that you are here to be with each student of the future, and that you are really that buffer between discouragement and encouragement.”
This year, Richmond Rotarians are celebrating 100 years of ‘service above self’ that has included supporting Peres Elementary since the school’s founding.
The Rotary Club established a dental clinic and a computer support center at the school, provides scholarship support and a variety of other programs.
Brown was joined Wednesday by fellow longtime Rotarian Erle Brown, whose late wife, Phyllis Peres Brown, was the granddaughter of the man who donated the land to house the school. After she passed away, Phyllis left Rotary a gift of $10,000 to be used to enhance teaching and learning at Peres.
