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CHAPEL HILL - Tom Stanfa, an English Honors teacher at Chapel Hill High School was selected as the North Carolina Veterans of Foreign Wars teacher of the year for grades 9-12 and now he’s competing for national honors.
The VFW’s Lee Heavlin says the group was happy to find out about Stanfa.
“It came to us from the kids,” says Heavlin. “He had taken the kids up to Danville, Virginia to see the national D-Day memorial.”
Because of Stanfa’s influence and the trip, the students decided to help raise money for the memorial and raised more than a thousand dollars.
“That led us to look more at Tom,” says Heavlin. “(We) went to watch the kids make the presentation and that was all because of what Tom had done working with the kids.”
Two years ago, Bill Melega, a history teacher at Chapel Hill High, went all the way to win national honors.
Heavlin says Chapel Hill high is a gold mine for finding great teachers.
“We’ve found some great teachers there,” says Heavlin. “We really believe that Tom has the chance to make it, too.”
Stanfa was selected as the District 6 winner and then won the state competition in January. He’s competing now against candidates from every state and from VFW areas in Europe, the Caribbean and the Pacific.
The WCHL Morning News with Ron Stutts
