The Bowling Green Schools Foundation has honored a teacher and a community member.
“We are here to celebrate you: People who are contributing their time and talents and yes, your dollars, to ensure that every Bowling Green City Schools student has the opportunity to thrive,” said foundation President Joe Edens at the 25th anniversary celebration held Oct. 14.
Pat Carney was presented with the Excellence in Education award while Nick Snyder was honored with the Community Member of the Year award.
Both men said there were other people more deserving.
Carney said he was honored, surprised and bewildered when he learned he had received this award. He said there was a large number of amazing educators in the district “that go above and beyond for our schools and our community.”
Pat Carney was presented the Excellence in Education award.
“I accept this award on their behalf, all of the teachers who continually go that extra mile to expire and motivate the students to do incredible things,” said Carney, who has taught in the district for 26 years.
He is a social studies teacher at Bowling Green Middle School.
The award is for outstanding teachers who makes a profound impact and go above and beyond to inspire through activities, high expectations and collaboration.
“I teach with incredible people. We have such a wide variety of talent and ambition among so many teachers in Bowling Green schools and I’m so proud to be a part of it,” Carney said.
He said district staff continue to inspire him to be better than he was yesterday, last week and last year.
With three children in the district, he said he has been able to witness incredible teaching from the other side.
Carney is also the high school track and cross country coach.
He said when high school Athletic Director Michele Wolf asked coaches to set goals and visions for future teams last year, he reflected on his career as a teacher and coach.
Years ago, his goals as a teacher would likely have been related to learning American history, government or economic standards. As a coach, it probably would have been focused on developing runners and words like “competitive” and “win.”
“I’ve come to realize that my goals and visions of what happens in my classroom and with the athletes that I coach has absolutely changed,” Carney said.
Now, his first goal would be to develop well-rounded, kind, polite, respectful and empathetic citizens, he said.
His role as an educator must go beyond books and into the area of character development, he said.
If he can use historic events to start conversations on tolerance and empathy, “this seems like it will have a much greater impact on our society that solely focusing on content,” Carney said.
His second goal would be to have young people believe in themselves.
In the current social media world, teens are bombarded with messages that they are not good enough.
“Students need to be encouraged to believe in who they are and be made to believe that they can accomplish great things,” he said.
“These have become the motivating principles behind my career,” Carney said, and added he is surrounded by other teachers who feel exactly like he does
Snyder, a Bowling Green native, shows exceptional dedication to the school district and recognizes that active involvement and advocacy strengthens the bonds between the school and the community.
Nick Snyder was presented the Community Member of the Year award.
He started the Townie Cup golf outing, which went from a dozen to 140 golfers, and uses it as a fundraiser for a variety of community and educational causes, including high school scholarships, youth hockey scholarships, the Bobcat Basics pantry, and funding fifth grade camp fees.
Over the past 15 years, Snyder has coached his children in a variety of sports, including youth hockey.
The Snyder family holiday party raised enough money last year to pay off the entire year-end school lunch balance.
As a former BG Schools Foundation board member, he was instrumental in starting the annual Trivia Night.
“I’m a bit humble,” Snyder said. “I look out and I see former teachers, I see current teachers, staff, administrative staff – amazing pillars of the community and I don’t know if I’m worthy of this.”
Snyder has three children in the district.
“I’m a townie through and through,” he said, and explained that’s what led to the Townie Cup.
“We don’t do what we do for this,” he said, referencing his family. “We do it for the kids. We do it for the community.”
Snyder said his parents taught him that if you’re able to give, give; if you’re able to do, do.
Also, during the evening, Bowling Green native and Olympian gold medalist Scott Hamilton was presented with the inaugural Scott Hamilton Award for Distinguished Alumni.
