Thunderbirds highlight local education with Teacher Appreciation Night, check donation

SPRINGFIELD, Mass. (WWLP) – The Springfield Thunderbirds honored local educators with Teacher Appreciation Night for their game against the Charlotte Checkers Saturday night.

Teachers from throughout western Massachusetts were invited to enjoy the T-Birds game. And one lucky teacher even got to drop the puck during pregame ceremonies.

22News spoke to the night’s lucky teacher and the sponsor of the event about what makes this game so special.

“I not only teach, but I coach and I tutor, and I just do a ton of stuff so it feels good to be recognized for what we give to the community,” said Shamia Anthony, a teacher at Sumner Avenue School in Springfield.

“We appreciate all their hard work that goes into teaching our children and getting them to all grow up properly in our community,” added George Morgado, owner of Allied Flooring.

And Teacher Appreciation Night wasn’t the only initiative at the Thunderbirds game promoting the importance of local education. Stop & Shop donated $15,000 to Springfield Technical Community College for its School Food Pantry at the T-Birds Game.

Stop & Shop presented the check on center ice and celebrated five years of Stop & Shop’s School Food Pantry Program, which serves over 230 schools across the Northeast.

“Success doesn’t stop in the classroom,” Stephanie Cunha, Manager of Communications for the supermarket company told 22News. “You need to be able to eat and thrive and if we can take that worry away from students so that they can focus on their grades, and succeeding in school that’s really what we’re all about.”

“Really combatting food insecurity in our campus, in our community and through our city.. so it’s extremely important this partnership with Stop & Shop,” added Jose Lopez Figueroa, Director of the Center for Access Services, STCC

Since 2019, Stop & Shop has committed a total of $61,000 to help support Springfield Technical Community College’s food pantry and stock its shelves with nutritious, shelf stable food items.