Chamber Connection

Tom Kies, President Carteret County Chamber of Commerce

A Healthy Respect for our Teachers and Frontline Heroes

As many of you know, I’m the president of the Carteret County Chamber of Commerce. But since March, but I like so many others have mostly been working remotely. I also write mysteries in my spare time.

I fear that anything I write will pale in comparison to the drama unfolding hour by hour all around us. By the time this appears in the September issue of the Island Review, the death toll in America will be approaching 200,000 if not exceeded that number.

Over the summer I taught a creative writing class for Carteret Community College and I talked extensively about heroes. We discussed how they need to be relatable but flawed in some way, but they should always be up to the task at hand, no matter the consequences or the danger.

We have them in real life. We always have, but it’s much more obvious now. The doctors, nurses and health care workers risking their own lives to treat those sick with Covid-19.

And of course, our heroes are also the law officers, firemen and EMTs that continue to work even though they’re putting themselves in danger of contracting the disease. And many of them have.

Less obvious are the people who are working in our grocery stores, pharmacies, gas stations and (thank heavens) the liquor stores. We also need to thank the truck drivers, the mail carriers, and sanitation workers.

And it goes without saying that our teachers are also heroes. They always have been, but now more than ever they’re putting themselves on the front lines.

Logistically, this is what the school board decided as far as reopening up the schools:

The Carteret County Board of Education members voted to implement their hybrid plan in which students alternate in-person days with each week of school. All students, pre-kindergarten through grade 12, will be assigned a cohort (A or B) which will attend school in-person two days each week and learn remotely three days a week, on an alternating basis.

A 100% virtual learning option will also be available for any family that chooses that for their student.

I’ve been teaching my creative course in-person since late June. The college requires masks inside any building and the members of my seven-student class keep socially distanced. We’re doing all the right things, but still, we’re in the same room for two hours, talking and reading our work out loud.

Teachers are going to be in rooms with many more students for longer periods of time. Any way you look at it, they’re heroes in this time of pandemic.

One of the many reasons we enjoy reading mysteries, especially in uncertain times, is that we’re pretty certain that by the last page, justice will be served, and the heroes will be victorious.

But this isn’t fiction.

It’s real life. And it’s scary as hell. So, when you interact with our real-life heroes, thank them and tell them how much they are appreciated.

Real life heroes, good on you! Thank you, thank you, thank you!

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