ST. CLAIR SHORES SENTINEL • APRIL 5, 2023
16A
History
Teacher
age of the car. Kind of like you plug in your charger for your cell phone. It’s very little voltage, but it’s enough to warm the whole suit,” Deacon said. After the idea came about, one of the brothers went to the Canadian capital, Ottawa. “The uncle went to the government in the capital, the allied forces department, said, ‘Hey, we got an idea. What do you think?’ (They said), ‘make it and we’ll try it out,’” Deacon said. “It evolved very quickly.” He said it started in the middle of 1939 and in a matter of weeks almost they had this concept and a prototype manufactured. Deacon said he worked in the factory from 1958 to 1962. In 1962, his father sold his interest in the business to Deacon’s cousin, relinquishing both his own job and Deacon’s job. The cousin ran the business from then until 1984, when it went out of business. “But before the business was sold I was the factory manager, right,” Deacon said. “I did everything. I determined what we made, how we made it and when we made it. I was in charge of everything going on in the building.” The building still stands today, Deacon said. However, he doesn’t know who owns it. Call Staff Writer Alyssa Ochss at (586) 498-1103.
but there’s other ones that are just as deserving or more than me,” Blackburn said. Sister Maria Guadalupe, principal at St. Isaac Jogues, said the Catholic Foundation of Michigan offers the awards. “They begin notifying us I would say at the start of the school year that if there were any Amazing Catholic Educators that we wanted to nominate,” Sister Maria Guadalupe said. “So, each parish or school could nominate one teacher.” Sister Maria Guadalupe went on to say she started thinking about all of her amazing teachers. She was helped by a few of them who said Blackburn should be nominated for the award. “I said ‘OK, that confirms it. I’m going to nominate — there’s the one I’m picking for this year is Mrs. Blackburn,’” Sister Maria Guadalupe said. It was a secret to Blackburn, as Sister Maria Guadalupe said she told the whole school and the parents of Blackburn’s fourth grade class in order to organize the celebration for her. “We wanted to prepare a worthy celebration for her, so we needed everybody’s involvement, so we kept a pretty good surprise from her, I think,” Sister Maria Guadalupe said. A chance to nominate teachers for the award was given to all the schools within the Archdiocese of Detroit, an area Sister Maria Guadalupe said stretches approximately from the Ohio border to a little bit north of Port Huron. She said
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she thinks there’s around 60 to 70 schools within this area. A total of 12 teachers were given the award in the area which came with a monetary award of $1,000 and a night’s stay at the Inn at St. John’s in Plymouth, now the Saint John’s Resort. Blackburn said some alumni have sent her congratulations, mostly through Facebook. Some of these alumni have children at the school now. “I’ve taught their children now so I’ve taught their mothers and fathers and now I have their children in my class,” Blackburn said. Both Blackburn and Sister Maria Guadalupe said there were other teachers who were nominated and a few won the awards. In 2020 or 2021, Sister Maria Guadalupe said, their language arts teacher won the award. “Like I said, I never expected any of this because as a Catholic educator we don’t come into this for the monetary awards, let’s put it that way. My award every day is going home and saying what they learned today,” Blackburn said. Sister Maria Guadalupe said Blackburn was an easy pick for this award due to the way she lives and what she teaches her students. “One of our mottos here at St. Isaac’s is that we say we are St. Isaac Jogues, where Christ is our teacher,” Sister Maria Guadalupe said. “And in my nomination of her, I said that she does an amazing job of living that and teaching the children that. She brings the faith into everything that she’s doing, and so when the award was for an Amazing Catholic Educator, she was an easy pick for me.” Call Staff Writer Alyssa Ochss at (586) 498-1103.
One Life One Week That Changes Everything
Join us as we follow Jesus through HOLY WEEK 4/2 Palm Sunday Worship ..................................... 10:30am Marking Jesus’ entry into Jerusalem
4/7 Good Friday Services .................................. 6:30pm Reflecting on crucifixion and the seven last words of Christ
Fara Randazzo-Jury Fmrandazzo-jury@acg.aaa.com
4/9 Easter Sunday Worship .................................. 10:30am Celebrating the resurrection of Jesus Christ
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4/6 Maundy Thursday ................................................. 6:30pm Walking with Jesus through the Upper Room and the Garden
