Sydney Weeks/Jack Fichter

COLD SPRING — Sydney Weeks, a fourth grade teacher at Maud Abrams School was named the county’s Teacher of the Year by the Rio Grande Wal-Mart.

Weeks received a $1,000 grant from the Wal-Mart Foundation for the Maud Abrams School and a $100 gift card to buy supplies for her classroom.

The award was a surprise to both Weeks and students who were called to the school’s cafeteria under the guise of a fall harvest assembly. Students watched and applauded loud and long as Jennifer Durham, community involvement coordinator for the Rio Grande Wal-Mart presented Weeks with a giant check, a certificate, a gift card and flowers.
Weeks said she has been teaching for 11 years.

Durham said Wal-Mart asked customers to nominate teachers for the award, which were forwarded to a selection committee. The committee talked with school principals of the nominees.

“Thank you for all your hard work,” said Durham.

Students offered a second round of applause.

Principal Barbara Dalrymple said she received a call from Wal-Mart in July informing her Weeks had been nominated for the award.

“I’m just so proud we are represented by Sydney in our community,” she said.

Dalrymple reminded students what she had told them at the beginning of the school year, their teachers were awesome “and were the very best.”

Each Wal-Mart, Sam’s Club, Neighborhood Market store and Wal-Mart Distribution Center selects one teacher. Nationwide more than 4,000 teachers are being honored by Wal-Mart’s Teacher of the Year Program.
Since the program began in 1995, the Wal-Mart Foundation has honored more than 30,000 teachers nationwide and donated more than $29 million to local schools.

Last year, more than $67 million was provided in support of educational initiatives, according to a Wal-Mart press release.