10,000 Lights

Sometimes parents share special stories about how a staff member has been a “light” in their child’s life.  It’s a privilege for me personally to see our staff do inspiring things each day for our students, and it’s also really inspiring to hear from families that are seeing the same amazing things.

This past month one of our teachers had a chance to share a truly special moment with her students.  It was a moment full of light in every sense of the word.  Students in Miss Jechorek’s classroom were included in a unique proposal, and they helped make the moment memorable by being their teacher’s “light.”  After the proposal I asked Miss Jechorek’s fiancé, Zac, what the significance of the lights was.  I wanted to share some of his comments and planning because it was a neat moment that our students played an important role in.

Several months ago, Miss Jechorek and Zac were talking and she pondered how she might know when he’d propose. He spontaneously replied, “You will know when you see 10,000 lights.”  (He had just watched a breath-taking advertisement for a diamond company that showed a couple under a tree that was lit with what appeared to be 10,000 lights.)

Zac also knew how important Miss Jechorek’s students are to her, so he wanted to include them in his plan to propose to their teacher with “10,000 lights.”  He found some small flashlights at a local store and the plan began to come together.  Each flashlight had seven LEDs and when multiplied by 25 students (then multiplied again by all the facets in her diamond ring) brought the total close to his goal of 10,000 lights.

Life is full of defining moments; they take our breath away and are sources of great light!  One of the many blessings we get to experience as educators is sharing this light and these collective defining moments with our students.  Just like the proposal story…students are our light.  They are the reason we aspire to be better than we were yesterday.  We want to make a difference for our kids.  So…on behalf of our entire school….thanks for sharing your 10,000 lights with us every day!