Welcome Back: Teacher return in preparation for a new year

Teachers and staff were welcomed back to Daingerfield-Lone Star ISD on Wednesday, Aug. 17 for the district’s annual Welcome Back Breakfast. Teachers, administrators, support staff, and all district employees were invited to meet at the High School cafeteria for breakfast and a time of fellowship to begin their year.

After a welcome from Superintendent Sandra Quarles, staff were treated to a breakfast that included biscuits, gravy, sausage, bacon, and eggs, all of which were made by D-LS ISD cafeteria staff. Following breakfast, the district was treated to surprises and prizes from area banking establishments.

The Northeast Texas Credit Union finished its fourth year of doing the Rally Rewards for area schools. Credit Union members can choose a special debit card that will earn rewards for their chosen school. Each time the Rally Rewards debit card is used, it earns one percent for the chosen school. In the past, the maximum credit a school could earn was $5,000. After last year’s campaign, the program cap was raised to $8,000. At Wednesday’s breakfast, the NETCU presented Superintendent Quarles a check for $8,000 as part of the program, which Quarles stated was typically used to offset the cost of field trips for students.

Following the donation, Quarles turned the microphone over to Brenda Howard and Texas Heritage National Bank, who sponsored the breakfast. Each staff member in attendance was given a ticket upon entering, and those tickets were used to give away a plethora of door prizes ranging from $50 gift certificates and candles to jars of pickles and Daingerfield Tiger tumblers. Businesses donating door prizes for the teachers included: Hawkins, Don Juan’s, Subway, Naples Gift Shop, Mayben Realty, the Northeast Texas Credit Union, Daingerfield Vet Clinic, Something Special, Gwickles Pickles, McCollum’s Cleaners, Arnold’s Restaurant, The D a i n g e r f i e l d Quarterback Club, Bailey’s, Mother & Daughter Salon, Daingerfield Flower Mill, Kimboze, and Outlaw’s. Tra Young and Leslie Pippen, both stylists at Mother & Daughter, also donated door prizes to the teachers.

Following the door prizes, Sandra Quarles asked West Elementary secretary Loretta Hill to come to the piano, where she led the crowd in a stirring rendition of “The Battle Hymn of the Republic.” Assisting Hill was Junior High Principal Linda Rhymes, West Elementary aide Jackie Kemp, and Claudia Traylor. Following the performance, Quarles handed the microphone over to David Fitts, the Executive Director over the Region 8 Service Center, and a 1987 graduate of Daingerfield High School.

Fitts began by telling the teachers that they are “all a part of the legend that is Tiger Pride.” He then proceeded to tell them about an encounter he had with a gentleman while on his way to Austin for the Superintendent’s Mid- Winter Conference. Fitts asked the gentleman, who mentioned he was in his 90s, about World War II, to which the gentleman replied he left a lot of his friends over there. Fitts used that story to relate to the teachers that the young men who died on the beaches at Normandy sacrificed they could be where they are now, preparing for a new year in the classroom. He added, “We must support and defend public schools, or we are turning our back on their sacrifice.”

Fitts closed by reminding the teachers they are all a part of the same team, adding his son once said, “It is not the building that makes a school, it’s the people inside that make the school.”