‘Whitefish School District Rocks!’ — a thank you to educators

Over the last few school years, public education was affected greatly by the Covid-19 pandemic.

School administrators, staff and teachers have had to adjust to different ways of teaching and helping students — the process has been difficult and trying at times. Many in the Whitefish community have witnessed the extreme pressure on schools during this time and decided to come together to throw a celebration in honor of educators and all school staff.

Community members are working with the Whitefish Education Foundation to hold a celebration called “Whitefish School District Rocks!” The event will be on Saturday, June 11 at the O’Shaughnessy Center in downtown Whitefish from 6 to 10 p.m. The event is free for all Whitefish School District employees and $20 for the general public.

The idea for the celebration came from a group of parents who wanted a way to show their appreciation for Whitefish Schools staff members who have served the community, students and families throughout the pandemic.

“This celebration is about the community recognizing what the school district did for our children and saying thank you for the hard work all the staff and teachers did over the past two years,” said local parent Cyrus Hadidi who helped lead the planning for the thank-you celebration.

Hadidi says his family and many others feel so fortunate that Whitefish children got to live as normal lives as possible throughout the pandemic because the schools worked hard to adapt and be effective in new learning situations.

“Things like this don’t happen by accident. Good outcomes happen when hard-working folks put the effort in and implement strategic planning,” Hadidi said. “The work of all the educators and support personnel at the district deserves recognition, praise and appreciation.”

Another parent Lauren Bradley, who is the Muldown representative for the Family Involvement Team (FIT) agrees with the hard work from educators that she’s seen throughout the last few years.

“Through my work with the Family Involvement Team at Muldown Elementary, I saw how amazing the district staff is and how much they have done over the past two years, despite all the obstacles,” said Bradley. “They worked tirelessly to keep our schools open and our children educated. It’s our turn as a community to celebrate them and collectively raise funds to benefit the Whitefish District schools.”

The ‘thank you’ event includes food trucks by the Waygu Wagon, Indah sushi and Senor Montana, as well drinks hosted by The Great Northern Bar & Grill. The MAC Band (Montana Artists Collective) will begin its performance starting at 7 p.m. with a versatile mix of music that includes Frank Sinatra, classic rock and pop hits of today.

The celebration is sponsored by local businesses including Alpenglow Aesthetics, Averill Hospitality, Bear Mountain Builders, Denman Construction, The Homestead, The Iron Horse Foundation, JCR, Martel Construction, Mindful Designs and NuWest Builders.

The sponsors have come together to raise more than $130,000 for the Whitefish Education Foundation which will go directly to sponsor school programs, activities and pandemic-related relief.

To order tickets, visit www.bit.ly/WSDROCKS. All proceeds support the Education Foundation and additional donations can be made at the time of ticket purchase or through the website at www.whitefisheducationfoundation.org.

The mission of the Whitefish Education Foundation is to enhance the quality and scope of educational opportunities for all students of Whitefish Public Schools.