Chris Pappas: “for many of us, what we are doing today and the person that we are today can be traced back, at least in part, to the…”

“for many of us, what we are doing today and the person that we are today can be traced back, at least in part, to the influence that a particular teacher had on us. In so many ways, teachers, whether in grade school or high school, have encouraged us and inspired us as we grew. The formidable years, those years in which we begin to think about what we want to be and the path of how to get there, are so many times guided by teachers. I know many people have chosen a profession or excelled in an area based on the influence of a teacher. That influence sometimes reaches well beyond guiding us through the four R's. My lifelong love of music and singing has been inspired by my elementary school music teacher, Mr. Erin Sanders. Mr. Sanders led us in song each week while he played the accordion at the Pine Grove Manor School in Franklin Township, NJ, where I attended. He also taught each of us that was interested in learning to play a musical instrument.”