M. Agnes Jones Elementary School principal Robert Williams, STEAM specialist Lisa Colbert and Mikaela Zimmerman hosted Atlanta West End Rotary Club members as we welcomed our District Governor André Hadley Marria for an official club visit in late September. Her official club visit included addressing the students, engaging with them in Q&A, dedicating a greenhouse provided through a Rotary Foundation District 6900 District Grant and a tour of the school.

The club also welcomed its Assistant District Governor - Cynthia Edwards - and Mr. Walter Marria, life-long partner of our District Governor and her husband for more than 50 years. The program was led by STEAM specialist Lisa Colbert, who manages the school’s garden, and Mikaela Zimmerman, a science specialist. The program began with a warm and most gracious welcome by the school's principal, who expressed deep appreciation for the club's investment of time and money.

When DG André addressed the students and larger AWER/M. Agnes Jones audience, she emphasized her deepest gratitude for teachers because it was teachers who urged her to go to college opening the way for many opportunities and positions of responsibility. It was in part through her teachers and education that she learned a part of her success in life is to be taken with a Passion, finding a Path, and being centered on Purpose. Governor Maria is a noted and accomplished singer, so she took the occasion in front of the students to sing a cappella: “I Believe the Children are Our Future, Teach Them Well, and Let Them Lead the Way, Show Them All the Beauty They Possess Inside, Give Them a Sense of Pride, Let the Children’s Laughter Remind Us of How We Used to be ....” DG André challenged the children and all adults to foster a world of generous people and all becoming good at donating of money and time for the benefit of others, because our world greatly needs it. She emphasized that we all need to be building our own legacy of justice and treating others nobly. AWER members keenly felt that our District Governor to be a genuine humanitarian.

The formal program concluded with a dedication of the greenhouse donated to M. Agnes Jones Elementary School’s STEAM program and funded by the club and a District 6900 grant. The greenhouse supports a growing understanding of botany - which the students showed in their knowledge of and caring for plants – no doubt reinforcing their awareness of plant systems and ecology. One second grade student said while leading a part of a tour of the garden, “I really like seeing plants in their various formative stages.” (Emphasis added)

AWER members then toured the school – led by Mss. Colbert and Zimmerman, meeting other teachers and students, seeing the faces of scores of eager children and talking with many of them, and observing with gratitude the array of resources available to them. Most apparent was the remarkable devotion of the teachers, enabling their students’ curiosity to grow and as a consequence the advancement of science in their minds.