Sprowls honored with Friend of Education Award
Staff writer
Chris Sprowls, recently elected to the USD 408 Board of Education, was honored May 14 as recipient of Marion Elementary School's Friend of Education Award for the 2002-2003 year.
He was nominated by Elaine Shannon, media specialist at the school.
Sprowls has been involved in the piloting of the Bal-A-Vis-X program at the school. Its purpose is to develop and integrate balance, auditory, and vision skills through exercises with bags, balls, and balance boards.
He not only endorsed the program philosophically, Shannon said, but he took the initiative to fill a gap in equipment needs for the program.
The school's Parent Advisory Council was able to provide each grade level with bags and balls, but acquisition of the balance boards was made prohibitive by their cost.
Sprowls studied the design of the boards, made small modifications, and created a comparable item for use by MES students.
He then generously donated his expertise, his time, and all of the supplies to make 40 of the boards for grade-level use.
"Now, with so many available, teachers can coordinate schedules and borrow from each other to have enough boards for either half of a class, or an entire class to work simultaneously on their Bal-A-Vis-X skills," Shannon said.
"Chris has also served faithfully on the MES Building Improvement Team (MESBIT) for two years and is now accepting the challenge of serving USD 408 as a board of education member.
"Chris has expressed an interest in retaining his position as an adviser on MESBIT as the board's representative. We appreciate Chris's dedication to improving the academic opportunities for the students of Marion Elementary," Shannon said.
Sprowls is manager at Kingfisher's Inn.
Thirty-six volunteers were invited to the May 14 Volunteers' Tea, Shannon said, where the award was given to Sprowls.
Each volunteer received a copy of a poem, a flower, and a red plastic apple with a green stem, with "Marion Elementary is special, thanks to you" written on it. The apples were donated by the Parent Advisory Council.
The program began in 1998. Marion Manor was the first recipient of the award, because of the school's positive interaction with the residents there, Shannon said.
"The kids read and sing to them," she said.
In 1999, Mary Jeffrey, and in 2000, Mary Costello, won the award for their help in reading, in the classrooms at MES.
In 2001, Kathy Ehrlich won the award for helping in the classroom with the book fair, the carnival, and other activities.
In 2002, Neal Whitaker, a ranger with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers at Marion Reservoir, received the award for presenting environmental and water-safety lessons to grade-schoolers.
