Page 6 - June 2021 Issue.indd

NCHS Student “It let them know that someone appreciated them, that what
they did was meaningful and that their hard work was noticed.
Brightens Teachers’ Day Over the last year and a half, teachers have worked very hard.
Coming from a student, signs of appreciation are not shown
By John P. Evans III
to teachers that oft en.”
While walking the halls and attending her classes at North
Bailey said she
Caroline High School this past semester, Bailey Bodine
received a lot of
perceived that many of the teachers just didn’t look as happy as
appreciative texts and
they usually did. The events of the last two school years seemed

e-mail from many
to have taken a toll on them as they tried to continue educating
teachers thanking
students through virtual classes and school shutdowns.
her for her gesture.
“I felt that the teachers weren’t as happy as they used to be. I said “I have gotten a lot
to myself that I had to come up with a good idea to make them of thank you’s and
smile again,” said Bailey, a 10th-grader at the Ridgely school. several teachers told
me that the ducks
Bailey came up with an item everybody loves, as well as one
brought smiles to

befitting the region – toy rubber ducks – to aid her eff orts.
their faces,” Bailey
“Since we live on the Eastern Shore, I thought it was a good
said, her mission
idea to use ducks to (lighten things up),” she said.
accomplished.
She got some help from her mom, Michele, who helped her go According to Spiker,

online and find a company that sold the small toys in smaller Bailey’s showing her
quantities. They ordered 108 ducks, approximately the number appreciation isn’t

of staff members at the that far-fetched.
school. “We gave out 107 He rarely comes in
ducks, there is one left,” contact with Bailey,
said Michele, who gave who was a member
Bailey the money to buy of the track team and
the ducks.
now holds the position of football
“There were several team manager.

different kinds of ducks,”
“Luckily, I don’t know Bailey that
said Michelle. “She was
well because she never gets in
going to sneak into each
trouble,” Spiker said of the above-
teacher’s room and put the
average student. “I do know she
duck on their desk.”
works hard and makes good grades.
“I wanted to surprise them She makes her voice heard in a quiet
by putting them on their way.”
desks, but I was told I
Michelle Bodine said her daughter
couldn’t do that, so I had
wasn’t looking for any publicity

to find out another place to
for what she had done. “She just
put them,” said Bailey, who
wanted to do something nice for
asked her class advisor, Ms.
the teachers. I don’t think she was
Sullivan, for any ideas she
looking for a lot of attention,”
might have.
Michelle said.
“I was told I could put Bailey said that she told just one
them in their mailboxes other student, a good friend, what she wanted to do “just to

in the office. She helped to get them all in the mailboxes so no see if she thought it was a good idea.”
one would see us doing it until they came to check their boxes.”
Now, a month after her show of appreciation, the little toy ducks

Bailey chose May 6 during Teacher Appreciation Week to give
have found several different homes. “Some of them you see on

out the ducks. As the teachers went to their boxes, smiling faces
the teachers’ desks, some of them they have taken home and
began to pop up around the school.

put in a place where they display other gifts they have received
“In these times, it was a ray of light for them,” said principal from students.”
Matt Spiker of teachers’ reactions. “It was a small token that
said to them ‘you are doing a good job.’”
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