Meet the SAMMI Nominees for Learning Promotion

The SAMMI Awards will be held on March 18 and event organizers are inviting the community to attend the annual event to honor people who have contributed to life on the Sammamish Plateau.

To honor the nominees and give the public a brief introduction to them, Sammamish Patch will be running profiles and photos of each person until the event doors open.

The written introductions and photographs were supplied by the SAMMI Awards. Sammamish Patch and other sponsors have contributed to the annual event.

"The people we honor have made unselfish contributions to the quality of life in our city, and in doing so they inspire all of us (to) give back," SAMMI Awards Executive Director Cary Young wrote in a letter to the community.

"This type of award ceremony is truly unique to Sammamish, and reflects the values that make our city one of the best small cities in America."

The awards ceremony will be held at 7 pm at Eastridge Church at 24205 SE Issaquah-Fall City Rd. in Issaquah. The doors open at 5:30 pm. The event is open to the public. But organizers would appreciate a $5 per person donation.

On average, about 400 people attend the annual event.

Here are the nominees for the 2011 Learning Promotion category:

Jeff Burgard

• Jeff Burgard loves his students. He inspires them with his knowledge and his passion for science, then step by step he takes them up the ladder of learning, always challenging them to do better, always celebrating how far they have come. As their minds expand, students become enchanted and fascinated by the magical world of science that surrounds them. Jeff Burgard’s students are winning because he has mastered the art of how people learn. He inspires each student to take risks, to reach beyond where they think they can go, then to acknowledge themselves as winners.  

Paul Doran

• Paul Doran knows that the best way to keep his students excited about learning is to be excited himself. With his natural talent as a satirist, humorist and entertainer, Paul never lets a moment go by without an opportunity for exposing new truths to them. Students in Paul Doran’s classes increasingly become free thinkers, demanding they see all sides of a situation to find truth. This creative,  warm and yet demanding teacher is exactly what this world needs; a leader our kids can look up to, a model of intelligence and an enthusiasm for learning.

Connie Heldt

• It is not enough to say Connie has taught history at Skyline High School since 1997; we must also celebrate the brilliance with which her students are enchanted by American History. Lives are being enriched with self-confidence as students, especially girls, are taught to trust their brains. What makes Connie’s lessons so irresistible is that, rather than teaching, she provides fun ways of learning. Through fascination and laughter, historical figures and events come alive in the classroom to entertain and educate curious young minds. The influence of Connie Heldt on Sammamish will be felt for generations to come.

Rebecca Tapia

• The wonder of music from classical to rock, and from voices, pianos, guitars to drums is the world of Rebecca’s students. They do not come to her for school; they come for life and they get life experiences that are transforming their realities. They are becoming more confident, more joyous, doing better in other classes and communicating more freely. Rebecca Tapia has awakened and inflamed so much talent that students of successfully created and performed their own musical theater production. This young teacher is on fire and all her students are on fire with her.

Gretel von Bargen

• Gretel von Bargen is the teacher her Skyline students will remember with a smile for their entire lives; how she stimulated every part of them; mind, body and spirit with her magic of the biological world; of how she guided them into the inner lives of humans, animals and plants with love and passion for life and learning. Whether it is from exploring her international website, dancing in the classroom to express a new awareness, or sorting through corals in the tide pools of Trinidad; the lives and minds of Gretel von Bargen’s students’ are forever expanded.