When you walk on to any of Friends Christian Schools’ campuses you feel a great sense of welcome, a family, a loving culture! Our teachers and employees go above and beyond to ensure our families that attend Friends Christian School know that we are with them, we are for them, and we are walking alongside them. Last night, Parenting OC Magazine, Orange County’s largest family magazine, hosted its Top Teachers and Employee Awards Reception at Bowers Museum in Santa Ana! What an honor to be there amongst the many other educators making a difference in Orange County!
We are proud to announce that Friends Christian School had 5 overall nominees on this list:
Teacher Nominees
Seth McCraw – Friends Christian Elementary School
Debbie Kohlenberger – Friends Christian Elementary School
Employee Nominees
Toni Steen – Friends Christian Elementary School
Crisie Pitzer – Friends Christian Elementary School
Kendra Reyerson – Friends Christian Elementary School
“We are extremely proud of the employees nominated and grateful that their hard work and talent is recognized by our parents and by the broader community. It was an honor for our administration to join them at this week’s ceremony and to celebrate their success. Congratulations!”
-Todd Perkins
Head of School
The reception began with music, hor d’oeuvres, and a welcome by Randall Tierney, Publisher, Parenting OC. Al Mijares, County Superintendent of School served as the evenings’ Keynote Speaker. He shared the many ways that educators truly leave a lasting impact on those they teach and encounter daily!
“If I were to ask you who made an impact, who impacted you the most, who was the most influential person in your life, likely– somewhere on the top of the list would be a TEACHER.”
Immediately following the keynote speech, guests in attendance were asked to give a round of applause to all the nominees as they stood up! What a beautiful depiction of “we’re all in this together,” educators celebrating other educators as they carry out their mission to impact the lives of our youth.
The first award of the night, “Family Favorite Employee of Orange County” went to….
Toni Steen of Friends Christian School!
Congratulations Mrs. Steen! Mrs. Steen is the Librarian at Friends Christian Elementary School. She creatively crafts activities and lesson plans during our students designated library time that encourage a love of reading, a love of adventure, and a love of books! There is never a dull moment in her library as you’ll find students eagerly excited to hear her read a story aloud, complete an activity or learn from the book of the day. In addition to all of that she has a book club at lunch, a reading rover program (where students read aloud to a service dog), a ukulele club and so much more! Congratulations Mrs. Steen and THANK YOU for the way that you love and care for your students!
Next up, Top Employee Awards where our very own…
Crisie Pitzer of Friends Christian School took the honors!
Congratulations Crisie! To know Crisie is to love Crisie and our students just adore her! Crisie is the Extended Care/ Lunch Supervisor at Friends Christian Elementary School. She is loving, caring and extremely creative! If you throw an idea to her, she takes it and goes above beyond to make it happen even better than what you could have ever imagined. FCS is blessed to have such a passionate, and selfless person like Crisie on staff. Thank you for your servant heart and for modeling just that to our students!
Congratulations to all of our Friends Christian School nominees! We are all so proud of you and thankful for your service at FCS. All of our faculty and staff members are an inspiration to our students that model the love of Christ in and out of their classrooms. We are grateful for our FCS community!