By Gabrielle Dunton, for wranglernews.com
Tempe Elementary School District teachers recently received a back-to-school surprise from Four Peaks Brewing Company.
All 816 Tempe Elementary teachers received school-supply kits, which included paper reams, pencils, pens, staples and retail coupons, and one of them got much more than that.
New to the campaign this year, Four Peaks is rewarding 11 teachers with $1,000 grants for school supplies, and among them is third-grade teacher Andrea Perez of Tempe El’s Thew Elementary.
On July 27, Thew employees and staff were treated to a Four Peaks lunch in the school’s library to celebrate Perez as a grant winner.
Perez was selected by Four Peaks for consistently going above and beyond for students by providing them with a caring, safe and supportive environment in which to learn and grow.
Perez is in her second year at Thew and plans to apply the grant toward her classroom library.
“One of my biggest goals is diversifying our read-aloud books to better connect with my students, as I have learners from diverse backgrounds,” Perez said.
“This grant will help me to continue to build strong relationships with my students and their families.”
The donation is part of the brewery’s 11th Annual Four Peaks for Teachers campaign that kicked off on Teacher Appreciation Day, May 4. It raised funds to distribute school supply kits to 10,000 teachers in Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico, Texas and Utah.
“Four Peaks for Teachers started in 2011 when we decided to host a school-supply drive to help our local teachers, and we ended up finding an amazing amount of support from our community,” said Four Peaks communication manager Zach Fowle.
“It’s just grown every year since, and we are proud to say that this year is our biggest donation yet.”
Four Peaks For Teachers is distributing kits to school districts across the Valley, including Tempe Union High, Chandler Unified, Creighton Elementary, Flagstaff Unified, Glendale Elementary, Kingman Unified, Laveen Elementary, Marana Unified, Mesa Unified, Prescott Unified, Sierra Vista Unified and Washington Elementary.
Gabrielle Dunton is a strategic communications coordinator with the Tempe Elementary School District.
