Dear Editor:
I would like take this opportunity to thank the Bradford County Education Foundation for its recent Leave a Legacy dinner which honored Mrs. Linda Alday and myself for our years of service in the school district. The work they do to support our schools is truly amazing. The generosity of spirit they showed me was both heartwarming and impressive. A special thanks to Cheryl Canova and Brenda Thornton for being so encouraging to me. Also to the entire team of BCEF workers who put this event together: Lynn Bryan, Dalton Diggs, Sheryl Dixon, Brenda Donaldson, Matt Dyal, Lisa Gault, Will Hartley, Vorease Jones, Sarah Long, Dimple Overstreet, Paula Register, Lila Sellars, Donna Tew, Chrissy Thompson, Kara Wainwright and Eugenia Whitehead.
I would also like to thank BHS Assistant Principal Chris Coffey for being so kind and accommodating to me in the days ahead of this event. And to Choral Director Hannah Mazur, Band Director David Ramos, Media Specialist Marie Appling and Head Custodian Curtis Knights for their willingness to assist me at times that were inconvenient for them. I am deeply grateful for the many kindnesses they extended to me. I would also like to thank Mrs. Lila Sellers for her help in expediting a much needed work order in the music department.
I am very grateful to the staff at Madison Street Baptist Church, who hosted the event. They all were extremely helpful and willing to stop whatever they were doing to help me. Many thanks to Charles Warren, April Kelly, Richard Cason and Callihan Helms for their help. And a special thanks to Bob Milner, who was a great help to me in more ways than I could list here.
And to Jenna Hewett, who spearheaded the efforts to contact former students and to provide information to them and to sell tickets and collect payments. Without her efforts, I don’t believe this event would have been nearly as successful. Many thanks to Jenna.
But most of all, I would like to thank my former students who participated in this event. Their willingness to take the necessary time out of their lives to be a part of this is truly remarkable to me. A good number of them traveled great distances to be a part of the Leave a Legacy dinner.
My only regret is that I could not invite all of my students to participate. I needed to keep the group to a certain size (60), while maintaining a musical balance and have it be representative of my 30-year career. As it turned out, the chorus had one-third of its members who represented each decade, with graduates from the 1980s, 1990s and 2000s. This made it impossible for me to invite so many others that I would have desired.
And lastly, many thanks to the parents of my former students who attended the dinner. Without their love and support over the years, we wouldn’t have had anything to celebrate. Thank you all for the many kind gestures shown to me by so many of you. I am truly honored and will forever be grateful to you all.
Don Hardy
Retired BHS Choral Director
