Annual Partners In Education Awards
October 29, 2009

A total of five awards were presented to honor outstanding efforts made by individuals and organizations that, through their partner schools, assist Partners In Education in their mission to promote student success through community involvement.

2009 AWARDS PRESENTED 10/29/2009:

Innovation in Partnering  -  Sunoco Toledo Refinery for their partnership with the Oakdale Elementary School 4th graders, through email correspondence. They utilize email with specific topics and then the year culminates with the students and their email partners meeting at the end of the school year.

Outstanding Partnership Award  -  Mercy St. Anne Hospital - working with Mary Immaculate School providing medical screenings, financial support for families and gifts to the graduates. Mercy St. Anne’s utilizes many departments for implementation of the partnership and all students at Mary Immaculate are impacted by the partnership.

2009 Outstanding Volunteer  -  Jennifer Duffield who is the business connection at Brooks Insurance Agency and is the connection to Walbridge School, Jennifer is such a proponent for tutoring, she leads the employees to initially tutoring, then engages them in sponsoring families for the holidays, making scarves for many students at Walbridge and engaging employees for annual field days. She is not only the outstanding volunteer, but has made a commitment to be the contact for last three years.

2009 Outstanding Organization - Jones & Henry Engineering for their dedication and service to McKinley Elementary School for over the past 10 years. Jones and Henry has provided partner tutors, volunteers for the school activities and over all financial support when the school requests.

The final award of the evening is presented to Joanne McElheney, who is awarded the Board of Trustees Award for exemplary service to Partners In Education. Joanne, has distinguished herself for selfless dedication to 7 years of the Dragon Boat Festival, leading the mark for teamwork recruitment and participation. Joanne has been the Captains Captain for several years. Joanne believes in making the students’ priority number one and lead the cause for Uniform for U collection in cooperation with the local Burger King restaurants. This is only the third Board of Trustees Award that has been presented in the fifteen-year history of the organization.

In addition Keyser Elementary and Queen of Apostles were recognized with achievement honors for having the most volunteers hours logged at their schools. Keyser Elementary logged 795 hours and Queen of Apostles logged 594 hours of volunteers.

“This year’s honorees serve as examples of the variety of ways that, when the community engages in schools, each of us has an impact on student success,” according to Mark Rasmus, President of the Board of Trustees of Partners In Education.

Each year, Partners in Education of Toledo holds an Annual Meeting and Awards Ceremony, recognizing some of the outstanding citizens who help us serve area children.