Lamplighter Awards

The 2014 Lamplighter Awards Banquet held on Thursday, April 10, at Pinecrest Country Club was a great success with 330 people attending. Foremost, the evening gave students an opportunity to express their genuine appreciation to educators whom they respect and admire. At the fourteenth annual banquet, Kim Holcomb and Gene Jordan, Jr., emcees, presented each student and honoree with a Lamplighter Award and read an excerpt from the student’s essay about the educator being honored. While each essay was unique, they all paid tribute to the same qualities students think outstanding educators should possess— encourage students to develop their talents and interests; serve as role models so that students make good choices; encourage students to be their best, even striving for perfection, knowing that no one is truly perfect; show interest in students' lives and interests; and teach with thoughtfulness and lots of patience. Four students concluded the program by reading their essays, for their essays best embodied the children's book, My Great-Aunt Arizona by Gloria Houston, that students read for inspiration for their essays. Those students Jenifer Floyd, fifth grader at Hudson PEP Elementary School; Alexander Bearden, fifth grader at Johnston-McQueen Elementary School; Dalton Serrato, fifth grader at South Ward Elementary School; and Lucia Lopez, senior at Longview High School.

Each year the Foundation honors a retired LISD employee who has been instrumental in the tradition of success of Longview ISD. This year at the banquet the Foundation awarded the twelfth annual Cornerstone Award to Madolyn Scott, retired fifth grade teacher from Johnston-McQueen Elementary School, community volunteer, and board member of the Longview ISD Foundation, Inc., for her dedicated service to LISD students and to the Foundation.

Because of the generosity of Heart of the Community, Champion, Sustainer, Advocate, Benefactor and Friend sponsors for the banquet and McCarley's Jewelry, Morrison Supply Company and Ronnie Rice, Jeanie Folzenlogen, and Lobo Tire and Auto Repair, who donated this year’s raffle items, the Longview ISD Foundation raised $41,524.00 to provide funds for its annual Grants-to-Teachers Program and Campus Initiative Grants Program. Since 1996, the Foundation has funded 573 grants through the Grants-to-Teachers Program, returning $535,294.02 to Longview ISD teachers, counselors, librarians, and nurses so that they can provide the very best education possible for their students. In addition, the Longview ISD Foundation has funded seventeen Campus Initiative Grants for a total of $48,240.67 to enhance programs that align with campus and district improvement plans to increase student achievement.

In the nineteen year history of the Foundation, it has returned a total of $583,534.69 in support of LISD educators and students and quality education in the Longview Independent School District.

The Longview ISD Foundation, Inc. sincerely thanks the sponsors for the 2014 Lamplighter Awards banquet.