Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank you for joining us on this special occasion. We have anticipated this celebration for many months, looking forward to the opportunity we would have, at the conclusion of this school year, of honoring Canyons School District’s first-ever group of retirees.
As we honor you tonight, we acknowledge the many years of service that most of you gave to the Jordan School District. We know that without the foresight of the Jordan School District to recognize your talents and abilities when you were hired, many of you would not be here tonight.
I want to take just a moment to convey my personal gratitude to each and every one of you for the support that you have given to me and my staff over the course of this past year. While I realize that some of you may have had reservations about the new district, you nevertheless put your faith in me, rolled up your sleeves, and did the work that needed to be done to ensure a smooth transition for children and families. Thus, while this past year was the end of an era for you, it has been a marvelous beginning for me, which I could not have realized without you.
As I look around the room tonight, what strikes me the most is that I see in your eyes a deep, abiding love for children. Love of children is the essential ingredient to quality education, and I am touched by the dedication you have given over the years to the students in our public schools.
Impressively, you have collectively devoted more than a millennium to children. To be exact, you have served a combined 1,373 years … and, by our rough calculations, touched the lives of more than 83,000 students. That, I think, deserves a round of applause.
One of the teachers being honored tonight deserves particular praise for her impressive longevity. Leah Smith, an art teacher at Jordan High, has devoted 40 years of her life to the education of children. Leah, would you mind standing so we can recognize your service?
Also with us tonight is a teacher who has spent her entire career 30 years at Brighton High School … and that includes her student teaching. Nancy Eckhout or, as students fondly call you, “Ms. Eck” would you please stand so we can recognize you?
We also are joined by two professionals who not only were hired at Bella Vista Elementary at the same time, but are retiring at the same time this year: Child Nutrition workers Leanna Carlson and Ruth Robb. Please stand — and while you’re getting up, one more point of interest: We also have a married couple with us tonight who are retiring together … Midvalley Principal Carla Burningham and bus driver William Burningham. Mr. and Mrs. Burningham, would you please stand as well?
Let’s give these folks, and all of our retirees gathered here this evening, a round of applause.
You truly are an amazing group of professionals. How can we possibly measure the impact of your dedication to colleagues? To the Jordan School District? To this new district? How can we ever hope to place a value on the difference you have made on the life of even one child, let alone the many hundreds or thousands of children who have crossed your path?
I would submit that each have you has given your life to the most noble endeavor on earth, and consequently has earned praise and respect from generations to come. As the founder of the common school, Horace Mann, said in 1842:
“If ever there was a cause, if ever there can be a cause, worthy to be upheld by all of toil or sacrifice that the human hand or heart can endure, it is the cause of Education. It has intrinsic and indestructible merits. It holds the welfare of mankind in its embrace, as the protecting arms of a mother hold her infant to her bosom. The very ignorance and selfishness which obstruct its path are the strongest arguments for its promotion, for it furnishes the only adequate means for their removal.”
Mann also stated: “Let education, then, teach children this great truth, written, as it is, on the fore-front of the universe, that God has so constituted this world, into which He has sent them, that whatever is really and truly valuable may be possessed by all, and possessed in exhaustless abundance.”
Each of you can walk out these doors tonight with your head held high, knowing that you spent your career giving the ultimate gifts, love and knowledge, that truly may be possessed by all. I hope you enjoy this evening as our gift to you, and that your journey into the next phase of your lives will be filled with the golden glow of fond memories and deep satisfaction for a job well done.
May God bless each of you for your worthy contributions.
Photos from the Retiree Banquet:
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| Patricia Baker – 19 years | Susan Lloyd – 26 years |
| Sharon Bateman – 20 years | Dennis Lombardi – 27 years |
| Janet Buma – 23 years | Linda Manion – 29 years |
| Carla Burningham – 30 years | David Marden – 30 years |
| William Burningham – 4 years | Helen Marslender – 20 years |
| Leanna Carlson – 31 years | Julia Martinez – 26 years |
| Linda Carter – 16 years | Marcia Mitton – 24 years |
| JoAnne Casey – 33 years | Janis Newton – 30 years |
| Robyn Christopherson – 26 years | Diane Oddone – 20 years |
| Jana Crist – 20 years | Gerald Oshel – 17 years |
| LuAnn Crowther – 34 years | Ina Perry – 15 years |
| Louetta Dammann – 18 years | Victoria Pettey – 25 years |
| Ron Davis – 22 years | Shelby Rickart – 27 years |
| Cindy Diaz – 30 years | Ruth Robb – 18 years |
| Nancy Eckhout – 30 years | Tamsin Ruffin – 10 years |
| Rebecca Evans – 14 years | Susan Schiffman – 32 years |
| Sylvia Farmer – 19 years | Kathleen Schneider – 31 years |
| Kathy Finerfrock – 13 years | Leah Smith – 39 years |
| Jacqueline Garber – 30 years | Elaine Smith – 3 years |
| Marjorie Gardner – 17 years | Susan Stepan – 30 years |
| Marie Gunderson – 21 years | Cherie Thomas – 15 years |
| Janice Harding – 17 years | Jean Vandongen – 31 years |
| Peggy Hunt – 23 years | Marilyn Veenendaal – 24 years |
| Eva Ann Jacobs – 20 years | Raymond Vonk – 14 years |
| Robert Johnson – 30 years | Gae Wagstaff – 19 years |
| Lynda Johnson – 26 years | Ann Webb – 33 years |
| Barbara Kornet – 30 years | Dianne Whimpey – 27 years |
| Nancy Kramer – 26 years | Ronald Wood – 15 years |
| Carolyn Larsen – 26 years | |
| Deborah Larsen – 18 years |
