Nominations for the Character Education Champion Teacher of the Year are open at Uncommon Friends Foundation. Elementary, middle and high school teachers in public, private and charter schools in Lee, Charlotte, Collier, Glades, and Hendry counties are eligible and can nominate themselves or be nominated by others. Nominated individuals must have taught lessons from the Uncommon Friends Foundation’s Character Education curriculum, exhibit characteristics of the Uncommon Friends in their personal and professional life, and have the endorsement of a school administrator.

The award will be presented to the 2016 Character Education Champion Teacher during the Uncommon Evening annual gala to be held on November 3, 2016. The annual award recognizes an outstanding educator who incorporates “Lessons Learned from the Uncommon Friends” to teach character education in his or her classroom. Nominated educators also inspire students to adopt the quality characteristics of the five Uncommon Friends, Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, Harvey Firestone, Dr. Alexis Carrel, and Charles Lindbergh—intellectual giants who helped shape the 20th century.

[av_image src=’https://uncommonfriends.org/newsite/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/Carlo-and-Patricia-Cicero-199×300.jpg’ attachment=’202′ attachment_size=’medium’ align=’left’ styling=’no-styling’ hover=” link=” target=” caption=’yes’ font_size=” appearance=’on-hover’ overlay_opacity=’0.4′ overlay_color=’#000000′ overlay_text_color=’#ffffff’ animation=’no-animation’ custom_class=” av_uid=’av-7ir45′]
2015 Winner Patricia Cicero with Carlo Cicero
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Last year’s Character Education Champion Teacher of the Year was Patricia Cicero of Pinewoods Elementary School in Estero, Florida.

Criteria and the nomination form are available at www.uncommonfriends.org. The nomination form and a letter of support from the nominee’s supervising administrator must be submitted by email to Angela@UncommonFriends.org no later than May 1, 2016. Additional information are available by contacting Angela Melvin, Executive Director of the Uncommon Friends Foundation at 239-337-9503.

The Uncommon Friends Foundation is a not-for-profit 501 (c) 3 organization established in 1993 and dedicated to lifelong character building among today’s youth and business leaders. Its mission is to promote character education in schools, business ethics in the workplace, and historic preservation of the Burroughs Home and James Newton archives.