AMESBURY — Three Amesbury Middle School educators were recognized for their inclusive contributions to the community Monday when they were presented with the Amesbury Educational Foundation’s Dr. Stephen Gerber “Stroke of Genius Award.”
The award, named after a retired Amesbury Public Schools superintendent, is given to those in the school community who participate in the betterment of the school and/or their students’ lives.
This year, physical education instructors Luke Alley and Kiana Rolfe worked alongside Sue Curtin, a special education program teacher, to run the school’s unified basketball program.
The program allows students with and without intellectual disabilities to play the sport together. It is made up of eight special education students and 10 general education students who are partnered up to play basketball against Reading, another community with a unified team.
The educators were nominated by their peers and received a standing ovation at a staff meeting Monday.
Jessica Stryhalaleck, assistant principal of Amesbury Middle School, was one of the staff members who nominated the trio and said she was thrilled to see them recognized.
“The principal and I were sitting together, and we were just tremendously excited, overwhelmed with excitement because it was so well-deserved. It’s been such an awesome experience for all of us, the staff here, the students and really the community as a whole ” she said.
The award comes with a trophy as well as a plaque and $500 to go toward the unified basketball program.
“It’s just a wonderful award because it recognizes people we might not know about and the nominations come from the peers of the people,” said Bill Messner, Amesbury Educational Foundation president.
Rolfe said she was stunned to be recognized.
“It felt good. I was a little bamboozled by it, I was shocked,” she said.
While Rolfe, Alley and Curtin were given the award, the group attributed the program’s success to the students and all those who supported them.
“The three of us were technically the ones who got recognized, but when it comes down to it, the administration with Jess and Doug, the parents of the kids, the kids themselves, it wasn’t just the three of us that’s for sure. It was a lot more than that,” Alley said, referring to middle school Principal Doug Nebel.
Now, as the group looks forward to the future of the program, Curtain said they intend for unified basketball to continue and possibly extend to other Amesbury schools.
“We had a large cohort last year that have now gone up to the high school, and the parents want to see that continue. So, just to have that keep growing and continuing on as they move on to a higher level,” she said.