Kenzie James
reporter3.riverbendnews@gmail.com
The Third Judicial Circuit Chapter of the Florida Association of Women Lawyers (FAWL) announced earlier this month that it is accepting teacher nominations for its second annual classroom wish list giveaway. The nomination period ends next week.
FAWL's Third Judicial Circuit Chapter announced on Tuesday, July 9, that it will pick a teacher from the nominees and fulfill the winner's classroom wish list for the upcoming school year. Nominated teachers must be from one of the following counties in the third judicial circuit: Columbia, Dixie, Hamilton, Lafayette, Madison, Suwannee or Taylor.
Kylie Kafka, president of the FAWL Third Judicial Circuit, said the chapter started the back-to-school giveaway last year to give back to the community and highlight local educators. The chapter is a donation-based organization. Kafka said they are grateful for the donations from businesses, sponsors and community members they received last year to help them achieve their goal for the giveaway and fulfill the winner's wishlist up to $500.
"When we ended the nomination period, we [had] over 130 applicants, and it was too hard to choose just one because every single teacher dominated was so deserving," Kafka said. "We put all the names in a random generator, and that is how we picked the winner because, again, every single nominee was deserving, and we wanted to be fair to everyone."
After the wish list teacher was chosen, the chapter's board divided nominees by county and read each nomination, choosing one teacher per county to recognize on Facebook. Kafka said the posts also included the teacher's wish list and why they were nominated in an effort to encourage community members to donate.
"We really enjoyed this last year, and we will be doing the same thing this year," Kafka said. She also wanted to acknowledge the chapter's other board members who helped her run the organization: vice president Heidi Kemph, state representative Dana Taylor, treasurer Donna MacRae, secretary Elise Yates and community outreach and social media director Taylor Cheek.
The chapter included a Google Forms link in the Facebook posts for this year's nominations so community members can provide the contact information for the teacher they are nominating and what makes their favorite teacher the best. Nominations are due on Wednesday, July 23, at 5 p.m., and the winner will be announced on the chapter's Facebook and Instagram pages on Thursday, July 24. The winner's classroom wishlist will be fulfilled up to $500.