Last night I got a call from the principal at the school where Chris teaches. She let me know that Chris was nominated for the Symetra Heroes in the Classroom/Seahawk Teacher of the Week award by some of his colleagues. Here are some details about this program from the Symetra website:

Program Details

Symetra Heroes in the Classroom is a community program that recognizes 16 Seattle-area teachers for outstanding leadership and instructional skills during the Seattle Seahawks season.

What Are the Criteria for Selecting Heroes?

A teacher who makes a real difference in students' lives.
A teacher who goes above and beyond in his/her day-to-day responsibilities.
A teacher who helps students build life skills.

What Will the Heroes Receive?

$1,000 donation to their school
Two tickets to a Seahawks regular season game
In-game HawkVision (JumboTron) "spotlight"
Pre-Game VIP sideline experience
"Heroes" award certificate
School visit by sponsors to recognize their achievement
Personalized #12 Seahawk jersey

Chris's principal had asked him to come to the staff meeting after school to hear an 'important announcement'. The one complication was that he had chemo today! His principal originally thought he had treatment tomorrow. There were limited opportunities to have the sponsors come to give out the award so she called me to see if we could get Chris there today. I let our wonderful scheduler at Swedish know what was happening and she helped us get right in to Chris's appointments today so we could get out in time for me to take him over to his school for the award presentation. He didn't know anything about it, we successfully kept it all a surprise. A friend picked up Taigen and brought her so she could see the award presentation as well. We got there in plenty of time and Chris went in and joined the staff meeting, still without knowing what was going on until his principal described the award and announced that he was the recipient!

The Symetra and Seahawk sponsors said they had never had a person nominated by so many people. They had all of Chris's colleagues that nominated him stand. Chris was very encouraged and touched. It was so wonderful and thoughtful of everyone to take the time to nominate him and say such positive things. It was fun to be a part of it, to have it be a surprise for Chris and have Taigen there as well. I'll post some pictures from today soon.

For an update on Chris's health...chemo went well today. White and red blood cell counts were good and cancer markers in his blood were down a bit more, which was great!