ORANGE — A reading specialist has been selected as the winner of the 2023 Pioneer Valley Excellence in Teaching Award for Orange’s elementary schools.

Cheryl Dodge said she was with students at Fisher Hill Elementary School earlier this month when Principal Lisa Lewis and Vice Principal Paul Fraleigh walked into her classroom with a “gorgeous bouquet of flowers” and informed her of the honor.

“I was blown away,” she said. “Totally unexpected.”

Nominations are submitted anonymously. Elizabeth Teahan-Zielinski, superintendent of the Ralph C. Mahar Regional and Union 73 school districts, said Dodge received two or three nominations.

“Cheryl is an exceptional teacher. She cares about the kids, she cares about their learning and she makes every single experience she has with the kids positive to ensure that they’re growing,” Teahan-Zielinski said.

Dodge said she has worked in the district for 21 years. She was a substitute teacher while her children were young and began working full-time after they had grown.

“The baby was 14 when I went back to school to finish up [my degree],” she said.

Dodge mentioned she initially attended college to study speech pathology but she learned she would not land a job in that field without a master’s degree. So she switched her major to special education and then, after “a 15-year sabbatical,” got her master’s at Fitchburg State College to become a reading specialist.

She mentioned her maiden name is Dexter — as in Dexter Park Innovation School, which is set to be demolished once the Fisher Hill addition is complete. She said the school she works in every day sits on land once owned and farmed by her ancestors.

Dodge will be honored at an in-person banquet at The Log Cabin in Holyoke on April 26. The program is expected to feature a festive awards presentation honoring the winners, who will each receive an engraved plaque and a $250 check, along with tuition incentives and scholarships offered by seven major colleges and universities in the region.

Winners also receive a WGBY membership and access to thousands of digital education resources as well as three-month memberships at the Springfield Jewish Community Center or one of the six regional YMCAs. They are further invited to apply for the selective Classroom Innovator Prize of $250. Up to 15 prizes will be awarded.

The Excellence in Teaching Awards program, in its 20th year, is made possible by the Harold Grinspoon Charitable Foundation in partnership with the Irene E. & George A. Davis Foundation. Other business and community support comes from American International College, Arrha Credit Union, Country Bank and Meyers Brothers Kalicka.

“Teachers play one of the most important parts in a child’s development. They inspire us every day and are true difference makers in our communities,” Jodie Gerulaitis, vice president of community relations at Country Bank, said in a statement.

For more information about the Pioneer Valley Excellence in Teaching Awards, contact Program Coordinator Michelle Roberts at mroberts@hgf.org.

Reach Domenic Poli at: dpoli@recorder.com or 413-930-4120.

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