Local teacher gets surprise award

HUBER HEIGHTS, OH (WDTN) - A Huber Heights teacher is honored above thousands for her work with young people. And she has a very special connection to our newsroom.

Good teachers are worth their weight in gold, and today Christy Sullivan got a small part of that fortune up front.It was a very happy day for Christy Sullivan, a teacher at the Huber Heights Kindercare.

Instead of reading where the wild things are, Christy heard a very different tale. One where she got the special education of the year award from Kindercare's parent company Knowledge Universe. Along with the recognition, Christy also gets ten thousand dollars.

It's the highest honor the company gives and Christy was one of only five teachers chosen this year across the country from a pool of thousands. " I was so shocked I thought I was going to faint." Christy said. But school leaders say Christy shouldn't be so shocked, she has touched too many young lives to be ignored."

She has probably had thousands of children in the 27 years she has done it so you can imagine the impact she has had on Dayton and several other cities where these kids have moved. They come back and see her now and it's so great we could honor her." said Jim Simon, the Regional Vice President of Knowledge Universe.

No one was more happy to hear share this exciting news than the man behind the camera, who actually started Christy's Kindercare career with her. Her son is none other than our own chief videographer Kris Sproles. The award came not only as a surprise to Christy but to Kris when we asked him to cover it. Congratulations Christy!