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For Cielo teachers, a welcome bit of TLC

By M.V. Moorhead

Massages in the library? Teachers learning Pilates or getting foot-rubs, feasting on gourmet lunches and fancy desserts in the middle of a schoolday? Who’s watching the kids while all this is going on?

Sounds like the hysterical promo for some TV news expose, but it’s just Teacher Appreciation Day at Kyrene del Cielo Elementary School.

The event, held in the school’s library as a finale to Teacher Appreciation Week, had a spa theme.

“I just had the idea of pampering the teachers...We wanted to take care of them, because they take care of our kids all year,” said Anne King, Cielo PTO’s volunteer chairperson, who spearheaded the event along with PTO board member Ibone Moreno-Schatzel.

“It’s a way for us to say thank you.”

The luxurious treatment wasn’t confined to Friday, either.

“This is the culmination of our week,” says King. “We started by sending the teachers Starbucks coffee and bagels on Monday, and on Wednesday they got smoothies. On Tuesday and Thursday, we laminated a poem for them about teachers. Also, the students wrote thank-you notes for their teachers.”

Then came the big spa day, from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Featured were body and foot massages and “a station where instructors demonstrate exercises the teachers can do at their desks.”

There were soft lights, there was soothing music and there were flowers. Prizes and/or services were contributed by Aji Spa, The Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort; Debby and Steve Atkins; Events R Us; Golden Spa, the Boulders Resort; Juice Factory; Lisa Siefker; Lora Hulsman; Lowe’s; Massage Envy; Meetingyz; Omni Tucson National Golf Resort; Priscilla Kadi; Schatzel Consulting; Scottsdale Princess Resort; Skin Haven; Sole Fitness; Southwest Skin Solutions; Starbucks; Table Talk; The Massage Guy (Charlie Hubbard); The Phoenician; The Pointe at South Mountain; Whitfill Nurseries and  Z’Tejas.

There was also a sumptuous lunch, supplied by Events With Taste. The event was open not only to teachers but all school staff, including nurses and cafeteria workers.

One of the latter, asked which was better, this lunch or the lunches she and her colleagues serve in the cafeteria, laughed a big rowdy lunch-lady laugh and replied, “No competition!” But she didn’t elaborate.

In general, though, the reviews of the event were unambiguous:

“That was fabulous,” remarked Sandy Osborne.

“This is something our wonderful PTO does every year,” said All-day Kindergarten teacher Heidi Johnson.

“The massages are new, though.”

“There’s a different theme every year,” said Johnson’s fellow kindergarten teacher Kathy Walters.

“One year was an English tea party. That was beautiful; we were set up outside. One year was a Western theme.”

Setting this year’s event up came naturally to King.

“I plan meetings and special events for a living. This is a way for me to give my talents back to the school,” she said, adding, “My dad always said I was born with a clipboard and a whistle.”

And, lest anyone imagine that the students were unattended during all this, running wild and turning Cielo into a Blackboard Jungle for the day, King offers assurance:

“We get volunteers from the Volunteers Committee to cover the classes during the event.”

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