Afterword for "Counting Crows"
Proceeds from the sale of “Counting Crows” and "More To Crow About" will be donated to a scholarship fund in honor of my late wife, Bronnie. The fund helps aspiring special education teachers at Central Washington University, where Bronnie earned her diploma.
If you wish to make a contribution to the scholarship fund, please write your check to: CWU Foundation — Bronwen Hatton Endowed Scholarship.
Mail the contribution to:
Central Washington University Foundation
400 East University Way
Ellensburg, WA 98926-7508
*****
A few months after I retired in the fall of 2010, I found an opportunity to write about Bronnie’s scholarship. The column in the Yakima Herald-Republic ran under the headline: “A scholarship winner holds promise for the future.”
Sometimes in the most unlikely of settings, something wonderful happens.
Take, for instance, a winter’s night last year when my wife, Leslie, and I attended the Zonta Club’s “Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre,” which raises money for a host of service projects.
As with most fundraisers, being grouped with strangers is common. Such was the case that night at the Yakima Convention Center. I struck up a conversation with a young lady sitting next to me.
“So what do you do for a living?” I asked.
She said she was a special education teacher. How nice, I thought — my late wife, Bronnie, was also a special education teacher.
“Where do you teach at?”
“Adams Elementary School,” she replied.
Wow, I said to myself. Not only did our son, Jed, attend special education classes years ago at Adams, but a few months earlier I had made a visit to the school as part of our Yakima Kiwanis Club’s Santa Claus program. Each December, Santa Claus and I go to special education classrooms throughout the Yakima School District. Our goal is to bring Santa to children with special needs who rarely, if ever, get to see “the big guy in the red suit.”
I could understand why she didn’t recognize me at first. When I go with Santa, I arrive dressed up as Edward the Elf, Santa’s rather talkative helper who’s decked out with a pointy hat, Elvis sunglasses, yellow ballet tights and old loafers, splattered with green paint and adorned with huge gold bells.
“I hope I didn’t scare the kids too much,” I said.
She laughed and shook her head. She said her students loved Santa, and yes, even Edward.
Then I asked her where she had earned her degree. She said Central Washington University.
“What a coincidence,” I exclaimed. “We have a scholarship there in my late wife’s name — Bronwen Hatton.”
That’s when she started to blink away tears. Did I say something wrong?
She smiled and said she had received one of our scholarships.
“I couldn’t have made it through without it,” she confessed.
Who could have imagined meeting Sharol Parry-Hodgson, one of only nine CWU graduates to receive our scholarship, over a plate of tossed salad in the middle of a packed convention center? Rarely do you ever see the consequences of a good deed.
Then there are those moments of serendipity when a stranger, sitting next to you, says in the most heartfelt of voices, “Thank you.” That’s when you know how powerful the force of giving can be. It can change lives, not only for the person receiving but also for the one giving.
When Bronnie was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1992, she had entered her second year of special education studies at CWU. She had earned a teaching degree earlier in Colorado but wanted to work in special education after raising our son Jed, who was autistic. Even though she underwent two surgeries and a grueling regimen of chemotherapy during that final year of classes, she still received straight A’s and earned her degree.
Shortly after she died in 2000, I sat down with CWU administrators and established a scholarship in her name. I couldn’t imagine a better way to honor her determination than to ease the financial burden for young special education teachers like Sharol.
I never mentioned to Bronnie the idea of creating a scholarship while she was fighting cancer. I knew she would have vetoed it.
I think, though, she would have had a change of heart after seeing what the annual $1,000 gift has accomplished over the years. Through her scholarship, she will continue to be an inspiration, helping others earn their diplomas as she did hers — against all odds.
If you wish to make a contribution to the scholarship fund, please write your check to: CWU Foundation — Bronwen Hatton Endowed Scholarship.
Mail the contribution to:
Central Washington University Foundation
400 East University Way
Ellensburg, WA 98926-7508
*****
A few months after I retired in the fall of 2010, I found an opportunity to write about Bronnie’s scholarship. The column in the Yakima Herald-Republic ran under the headline: “A scholarship winner holds promise for the future.”
Sometimes in the most unlikely of settings, something wonderful happens.
Take, for instance, a winter’s night last year when my wife, Leslie, and I attended the Zonta Club’s “Murder Mystery Dinner Theatre,” which raises money for a host of service projects.
As with most fundraisers, being grouped with strangers is common. Such was the case that night at the Yakima Convention Center. I struck up a conversation with a young lady sitting next to me.
“So what do you do for a living?” I asked.
She said she was a special education teacher. How nice, I thought — my late wife, Bronnie, was also a special education teacher.
“Where do you teach at?”
“Adams Elementary School,” she replied.
Wow, I said to myself. Not only did our son, Jed, attend special education classes years ago at Adams, but a few months earlier I had made a visit to the school as part of our Yakima Kiwanis Club’s Santa Claus program. Each December, Santa Claus and I go to special education classrooms throughout the Yakima School District. Our goal is to bring Santa to children with special needs who rarely, if ever, get to see “the big guy in the red suit.”
I could understand why she didn’t recognize me at first. When I go with Santa, I arrive dressed up as Edward the Elf, Santa’s rather talkative helper who’s decked out with a pointy hat, Elvis sunglasses, yellow ballet tights and old loafers, splattered with green paint and adorned with huge gold bells.
“I hope I didn’t scare the kids too much,” I said.
She laughed and shook her head. She said her students loved Santa, and yes, even Edward.
Then I asked her where she had earned her degree. She said Central Washington University.
“What a coincidence,” I exclaimed. “We have a scholarship there in my late wife’s name — Bronwen Hatton.”
That’s when she started to blink away tears. Did I say something wrong?
She smiled and said she had received one of our scholarships.
“I couldn’t have made it through without it,” she confessed.
Who could have imagined meeting Sharol Parry-Hodgson, one of only nine CWU graduates to receive our scholarship, over a plate of tossed salad in the middle of a packed convention center? Rarely do you ever see the consequences of a good deed.
Then there are those moments of serendipity when a stranger, sitting next to you, says in the most heartfelt of voices, “Thank you.” That’s when you know how powerful the force of giving can be. It can change lives, not only for the person receiving but also for the one giving.
When Bronnie was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 1992, she had entered her second year of special education studies at CWU. She had earned a teaching degree earlier in Colorado but wanted to work in special education after raising our son Jed, who was autistic. Even though she underwent two surgeries and a grueling regimen of chemotherapy during that final year of classes, she still received straight A’s and earned her degree.
Shortly after she died in 2000, I sat down with CWU administrators and established a scholarship in her name. I couldn’t imagine a better way to honor her determination than to ease the financial burden for young special education teachers like Sharol.
I never mentioned to Bronnie the idea of creating a scholarship while she was fighting cancer. I knew she would have vetoed it.
I think, though, she would have had a change of heart after seeing what the annual $1,000 gift has accomplished over the years. Through her scholarship, she will continue to be an inspiration, helping others earn their diplomas as she did hers — against all odds.
