Use this search box to find articles that have run in our newspapers over the last several years.
Date: 12/18/2019
LONGMEADOW – Teddy Hinshaw stood at the front of the classroom between his math and writing teacher, Colleen Moore, and Tammy Scott, marketing manager for Yanni Family Orthodontics, and the three of them balanced an oversized check.
Moore, a fourth-grade teacher at Wolf Swamp Road Elementary School in Longmeadow, received $100 to spend on her class, all because Hinshaw wrote about her.
Hinshaw, who turned 10 -years-old that day, is a patient at Yanni Family Orthodontics. His father told him about the contest in which he could win $100 for his teacher if he wrote an essay. Hinshaw chose to write about Moore, who teaches Hinshaw math and writing.
“I chose her because she’s my favorite teacher that I’ve ever had,” Hinshaw said. “She always gets the day started nice,” and “she makes everything easy for us. Even when we make a mistake, she always helps us learn from it,” he said.
Yanni Family Orthodontics, owned by Dr. Janice Yanni, runs the essay contest across each of its five offices, in Longmeadow, East Longmeadow, Agawam, West Springfield and Tolland, CT.
Each month the business chooses one essay from a student within its communities and rewards the teacher with $100 to spend in their class. Scott said each month has a themed prompt to get the students started on their essay.
Scott said, “Dr. Yanni gives back to the community.” Because the doctor has three kids, Scott said, she appreciates the work teachers do. Scott presented the check to Moore during Hinshaw’s class on Dec. 13.
"It’s just like in the movies,” one of the students exclaimed when Scott entered the room with the check.
Principal Elizabeth Nelson said this is Moore’s first year with the district, though she had been a teacher in Springfield for about a decade prior to working in Longmeadow.
Moore said she was shocked and humbled that Hinshaw had written an essay about her. She said she will buy math games with the prize money. “I’ll let [the students] pick,” which games they want, she said.