People
Hammering Home A Victory

The nearly nine-pound ball swings on the end of a chain, making large circles in the air. With one swift, highly technical motion, the ball and chain are released and they soar through the air, ultimately landing hundreds of feet from where they started. This is hammer throwing, and Anna Norgren Mahon is, you could say, pretty good at it.

The English teacher at Amity High School in Orange, Connecticut, is ranked number one in the country and number 16 in the world in the event. She currently is training for the 2004 Summer Olympics.

After a high school career as a hurdler, Mahon began hammering in 1992 during her freshman year at the University of Vermont. She says she tried both hammer throwing and the shot put, but hammer throwing stuck.

"I love the fact that hammer throwing is super technical and it's a sport that always requires you to learn more and more to actually make yourself better," she says.

The skills Mahon acquired on the field translate naturally to her classroom. She says that hammering gives her a sense of self-discipline, focuses her, and lets her communicate with her students more directly. "It's all about getting better from week to week, which is what I tell my students," Mahon says.

As her training for 2004 picks up, Mahon often reflects on how far she has come since her freshman year in Vermont. She beat the American record holder for hammer throwing in 1998 and placed fourth at the Olympic Trials in 1999, all without a coach. Today, she trains six days a week while putting in full days at school.

"I've always told myself that I would stop doing what I do if I ever got sick of it, and that hasn't happened yet--not in hammering, and definitely not in teaching."

No-Shows for Charity Shows

To NEA-Retired member Ed Bradley, of Lincoln Park, New Jersey, an empty seat is a terrible thing to waste, especially when the seat can give a child the experience of a lifetime. That is the philosophy behind "No-Shows for Charity Shows," a program that provides unused sports and concert tickets to needy children.

Since its creation, No-Shows has provided more than 72,000 unused event tickets to needy New Jersey children. Another 25,000 have been distributed to children in Pennsylvania, New York, Tennessee, and North Carolina. The tickets come from teams, franchises, corporations, and season ticket holders who donate tickets they aren't going to use. The tickets are then handed over to organizations such as the Young Men's Club of America, Big Brothers and Big Sisters, and Catholic Charities.

For his efforts, Bradley has received countless awards and recognition by Presidents Ronald Reagan, George Bush, and Bill Clinton.

"What's most important, however, is the success of this program and our ability to reach so many deserving children," says Bradley, who's about to expand No-Shows into a nationwide program.

Tomorrow's Teachers

Clarence Romero, an associate professor of psychology at California's Riverside Community College, received a clear wake-up call a decade ago when he volunteered to become a "student for the day."

The experience gave Romero a new perspective on who his students were and where they came from. "I had many Latino students who were trying to find their way despite mediocre grades and little encouragement from their families," he says. "One setback, one bad grade was enough to dissuade them from pursuing higher education."

So Romero started Latino Educators of Tomorrow (LET) to encourage students to overcome mental and physical barriers, set personal goals, and take an active role in their education. LET also is an award-winning teacher-preparation program that has recruited hundreds of Latinos into the field of education.

Through the program, participants learn leadership skills, experience cultural activities, and work together to help others less fortunate than themselves.

"LET is built on the premise that to advance, we must help others," says Romero, a member of the California Community College Association. "My students are the ultimate professionals. Their success is a valuable lesson for all teachers. When we raise our expectations, students will rise to the challenge."

On the Front Lines

For students in Jolene Jenkins' seventh grade classroom at Mahaffey Middle School, the war in Afghanistan is very close to home: They are the sons and daughters of Army and Air Force personnel who are stationed in Fort Campbell, Kentucky.

"The events of the last five months have changed teachers' roles, especially for those of us on military posts," says Jenkins, the 2002 Department of Defense Education Activity (DoDEA) Teacher of the Year.

Jenkins has worked at Fort Campbell since 1987, and she uses her own experience as a "military wife" to reach out and connect with her students. She started an after-school mentoring program to assist academically struggling students and a reading partnership between her students and students in pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, and first-grade classrooms.

Bringing Education to Afghan Children

Like most Americans, Catherine Larkin is troubled about the devastating effects the Taliban rule has had on Afghanistan's children.

"It seems like there are new stories everyday about what these children have had to endure," says the Bangor, Maine, school social worker. "They had to hide to be educated, if they were educated at all."

Since the country's liberation, Larkin (pictured here, center) has searched for a way to help build back Afghanistan's educational programs. UNICEF's "Schools-in-a-Box" kit was her answer. Each kit costs $300 and contains enough school supplies and books to educate 80 Afghan children. Larkin, who chairs the Maine Education Association's Human and Civil Rights Committee, used this kit during a fund-raiser at the Association's statewide professional issues conference in January. As a result, the Maine educators raised nearly $1,300 for the cause. "As people who work with children everyday, this is the most heartfelt and rewarding thing we could do," Larkin says.