SOUTH DUNDAS – For 25 years Sarah Barclay-Thomas has been teaching students at Morrisburg Public School a lot more than reading, writing and arithmetic – she has been teaching them the true meaning of community and the importance of finding their places within it.
The Grade 5/6 teacher is retiring and the Morrisburg Public School students, staff and community partners gathered in her honour Friday afternoon to celebrate her and her career.
Known for creating and nurturing intergenerational partnerships with those residing at the Hartford, ensuring her students have opportunities such as the Stay On Course program which allowed children to forge positive relationships with OPP and Morrisburg Golf Club volunteers while learning to golf, and leading an annual empathy project to deliver Christmas Cards to those patients, including newborn babies in hospital (Winchester District Memorial Hospital) over the holidays.
She too has partnered with the Morrisburg and District Lions Club regularly to address school and student needs.
Barclay-Thomas spent last Friday morning at the Hartford with her students, then enjoyed skating at the Morrisburg Arena with the students and then ended the day with a surprise assembly, complete with surprise guests including former students returning to thank her for the difference she made in their lives.
“It was a really special day,” she told The Leader. “It’s all a little surreal.”
In forging all of these community partnerships, Barclay-Thomas’ name became a familiar one to The Leader and its readers. “It is because of you, and the reporters at The Leader that I have incredible articles documenting some of the things I was doing with the MPS students over the last 25 years,” she said. “You helped me to document my own history, and of course the school’s. I will be forever grateful for that!”
After the assembly all of the MPS students lined the hallway and clapped Mrs. Thomas to her classroom for one last time.
“As I close this chapter, I want to sincerely thank everyone who made my final day so incredibly memorable and meaningful,” said Thomas. “It was truly an extraordinary final day – more than I ever could have wished for. Thank you all for your kindness, generosity and love. I will carry these memories with me always.”
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