{"id":40493,"date":"2022-05-20T23:19:55","date_gmt":"2022-05-21T05:19:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-throws-a-party-to-celebrate-teachers-work\/"},"modified":"2026-03-31T02:56:02","modified_gmt":"2026-03-31T08:56:02","slug":"cortez-throws-a-party-to-celebrate-teachers-work","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/cortez-throws-a-party-to-celebrate-teachers-work\/","title":{"rendered":"Cortez throws a party to celebrate teachers\u2019 work"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"About
About 100 educators were honored at an appreciation party Friday in Cortez. (Jim Mimiaga\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>\n

Teachers have an often thankless job, so a group of volunteers decided to throw an appreciation party for them Friday afternoon at the Cortez Cultural Center Plaza.<\/p>\n

About 100 teachers, counselors, paraprofessionals, and principals from Montezuma-Cortez School District RE-1 gathered for a barbecue lunch, entertainment, door prizes and dancing with a chicken to a DJ.<\/p>\n

The event was put on by Cortez Teacher Appreciation Committee, a newly formed group of 15 volunteers inspired by the work educators do. More than 200 invitations went out.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe wanted to honor our teachers for all they do and especially for making in through these tough last two years,\u201d said committee chairman and volunteer Jim Skvorc.<\/p>\n

\"Teachers
Teachers celebrated the end of the school year at a party for them Friday at the Cortez Cultural Center. (Jim Mimiaga\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

During the pandemic, Montezuma-Cortez teachers faced the additional challenges of remote learning, shutdowns from COVID-19 outbreaks, hot-button political debates like critical race theory, leadership and teacher turnover, and school board controversy.<\/p>\n

Signs stating \u201cWe Love Cortez Teachers\u201d sprang up all over Cortez in anticipation of the party, held Friday under a sunny sky in a gentle breeze.<\/p>\n

Thirty-five businesses and organizations donated more than $3,000 in door prizes for teachers that included artwork, Osprey packs, lawn chairs and gift certificates.<\/p>\n

The LOR Foundation provided financial support for the party.<\/p>\n

\"Kemper
Kemper Elementary teachers Teresa Kraus, Nancy Shaw and Diane Townley enjoyed celebrating the end of the school year at a teacher appreciation party Friday. (Jim Mimiaga\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

\u201cIts wonderful to see this expression of love for teachers,\u201d said Nancy Shaw, who teaches third grade at Kemper. She has been a teacher at the district for 33 years and has taught for 43 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat keeps me coming back are the kids and the people I work with,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Montezuma-Cortez High School math teacher Andrew Coad enjoyed the event as he stood in line for a barbecue lunch and chatted with colleagues.<\/p>\n

\u201cI see a lot of value in a job like this. We make an impact on the community,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Organizer Terri Helms said the group wanted to \u201cbring some sunshine to our teachers. They\u2019ve been on the front lines, and we want them to know they\u2019re not forgotten.\u201d<\/p>\n

Depending on community support, it could become an annual celebration, she said.<\/p>\n

Dan Porter, longtime educator and current head of the new Kwiyagat Community Academy in Towaoc, gave a speech.<\/p>\n

\"Educators
Educators Atana Sauzmeda, Emily Jeremiah and Mike Ptaszynksi collect door prizes at a teacher appreciation party Friday at the Cortez Cultural Center. (Jim Mimiaga\/The Journal)<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Retired teacher Carolyn Goff entertained the crowd with a comical show-and-tell of the PTSD symptoms and remedies teachers go through. She wore a cardboard sign that read, \u201cThe end is near.\u201d<\/p>\n

To officially end the year, teachers gathered to dance on the plaza as DJ Burt Valencia blasted upbeat tunes. A coordinated dance was led by a man dressed in a bright yellow chicken suit.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

End-of-the-year party recognizes hard work during tough times<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40494,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[21,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-40493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-cortez","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40493"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40493\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":84667,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40493\/revisions\/84667"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40493"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=40493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}