When the family of Melanie Sutter, a teacher at Montpelier (Ohio) Elementary School for over 29 years, created the Live Like Mel Foundation, they wanted to continue Melanie’s legacy after she passed away during the 2018-2019 school year after a brave battle with glioblastoma brain cancer. She had made a huge impact on thousands of lives as a longtime teacher. The Foundation made the decision to recognize Melanie’s colleagues by awarding Educator Grants for teachers to use on classroom projects that will make a positive impact on students.
On Friday, May 24, 2019, the last teacher workday of the school year, co-founder’s Cory Calvin, Melanie’s son, and Mike Sutter, Melanie’s husband, presented current second grade teachers Kacie Dickinson, Tammy Lee and Caleb Wyse with the inaugural Live Like Mel Educator Grants. Each teacher received a $100 grant for their classroom. Dickinson was selected by the Foundation’s awards committee to receive an additional $200.
“These grants go beyond ultimately ‘winning’. Our intent is to recognize all teachers for the incredible achievements you all make each day and to create opportunities like today to celebrate each of you for your hard work. This grant is intended to recognize and celebrate the principles and integrity that all teachers live by, just as Mel did,” Calvin said in front of about 100 Montpelier teachers and administrators at the annual end-of-year luncheon.
After each member of the diverse awards committee nominated their top candidates and then came together to select the final recipients, the committee quickly realized that the final three candidates all taught the same grade level. Calvin said it must be “some divine intervention that all three of the educators all teach second grade, which was the grade that Melanie taught for most of her career here at Montpelier.”
On the grant application which was open to all teachers and para-professionals (teacher aids) at Montpelier Schools, the Foundation wanted to learn not only about each educator’s teaching style and how they would use the grant funding, but they also wanted to learn how the applicant Lived Like Mel each day. And during the selection process, the Foundation contacted each applicant’s references and asked them to share their thoughts that best describes each person.
The following are brief summaries about each grant recipient:
Dickinson, Lee and Wyse were all notified of receiving the award by Calvin and Abby Calvin, Melanie Sutter’s daughter, one week prior when the Calvin’s surprised all three at the same time before school began. Each teacher’s classroom of about 20 students each received an ice cream party where the children could help celebrate their outstanding teacher.
“None of us would be here today if it weren’t for the influencers, coaches, mentors, role models – people like all of you in this room,” Calvin continued at the luncheon. “Even when you have days of great stress, the collective efforts that you made during this school year, and every school year, continue to shape the minds of our children, their children and their children’s children. You are truly making a difference.”
The Foundation has released the following 2019 Live Like Mel Educator Grant highlights video:
Kacie just completed her 13th year teaching at Montpelier Schools. One of the ways that Kacie lives like Mel is that she has learned to live in the moment and treats every moment as a gift. Kacie plans to use the funds to update her classroom math supplies and her classroom library. This year, Kacie started to do “literature circles” which requires many different chapter book sets. Kacie’s peers said that “she is a wonderful person and in turn a good teacher. She is very dedicated to her profession. Her classroom style is to keep the environment orderly and the kids working hard.” Another colleague said “I want my kids to be taught by her”
Tammy has been an educator for 24 years at Montpelier Schools. One of the ways that Tammy lives like Mel is to make sure that she takes time to stop and ask others how they are doing. Tammy plans to use the funds to continue enhancing the students’ learning with outside resources, hands-on lessons, as well as items and necessities for class pets and plants. One of Tammy’s peers said “she is a very innovative teacher and always has a lot of curricular things going on in her classroom such as projects focusing on science. She is truly an enthusiastic and energetic teacher.”
Caleb is one of the newer teachers at Montpelier Schools in his second year of teaching. He said he “makes sure to let those around him know that he values them” as one of the ways that he lives like Mel. The Foundation is excited to see how Caleb’s project unfolds as he plans to purchase non-consumable STEM materials to allow students to explore concepts of math, science, technology and engineering. One of Caleb’s peers said that “he is very creative and gets the kids inspired. His love and education of children reminds me of Mel, as far as pushing them to always do their best!”
The Live Like Mel Foundation is a registered 501(c)3 non-profit organization that continues the legacy of former Ohio educator, Melanie B. Sutter, who passed away February 2019, from glioblastoma brain cancer. The purpose of The Live Like Mel Foundation is twofold: 1) to support the field of education by recognizing and providing financial assistance to future and current educators and 2) to support individuals and families impacted by glioblastoma by providing educational information and resources.
Soon after Melanie passed, the family raised funds for the Foundation with the hopes to offer scholarships and grants to future and current educators. It is the Foundation’s goal to not only recognize those who have a passion to earn an education degree and become future educators, but also support current educators and recognize the incredible work they perform each year.
Due to the timing of the Foundation’s creation and the end of the current school year, the officers of the Foundation were not able to offer a scholarship to a future educator during the 2018-2019 academic school year and is planning to offer a future educator scholarship next year. Therefore, the Foundation plans to offer two types of award opportunities each year in the future: current educator grants and future educator scholarships.
In the future, the Foundation is considering offering current educator grants to other schools outside of Montpelier Schools. Also, the Foundation is looking into non-traditional ways to award scholarships to future educators. Scholarships for individuals going back to school to receive an education degree years after graduating high school (just like Melanie did) or scholarships for college seniors who are about to graduate with an education degree (to ensure the funds truly support a degree in education) are options currently being discussed.
Main photo courtesy of The Bryan Times, Bryan, Ohio.
Note: The Live Like Mel Educator Grants are not administered or supported financially by the Montpelier Exempted Village School District Board of Education.