CABE’s executive director, Robert Rader recently gave me the opportunity to attend the annual CABE/CAPPS Convention as a Workingmother.com representative. This past summer I had discussed my column with Bob at the gym which we frequent along with many other teachers, principals, and board of education members in Glastonbury, Connecticut.  With all of these interesting professionals to speak with, I am seldom at a loss for ideas for my articles. Aside from their children’s personal safety and happiness, there is nothing that parents care more about than education.

During the course of the two day leadership convention for Connecticut’s Public School Superintendents and Board of Education Chairs, I met many inspiring and impressive educational leaders including Ginger Katz, avid sportswoman, and CEO and Founder of The Courage to Speak Foundation. Ginger has spoken to school and community organizations in twenty U.S. States and The District of Columbia; and many other states have fully implemented her drug prevention curriculum, including her children’s book Sunny’s Story. As I listened to Ginger’s presentation, I wept as she described how her son Ian was taken from her and all of us by illegal drugs in September of 1996.

In early October of 1996, I was the youngest female finisher of the Venice Marathon in Venice, Italy. Like her son Ian, I am extremely sensitive and impulsive. Looking at the slide-show of Ginger’s family photos, I noticed that her son often has the welcoming, open expression that I usually display in photos and in my real daily life.  Luckily my impulsivity leads me down roads, wooded trails and sometimes black diamond hills, and my openness connects me with other running friends instead of drinking/drugging buddies. I thought of my own athletic, dark-haired mother as Ginger spoke, and how I had wept after I finished my first marathon. Studying in a foreign country, I missed my competitive runner-mom and my Colgate teammates terribly. The beauty of Piazza San Marco greeted me at the finish-line, but not any familiar faces.

Ginger’s children and I possess a mother who takes endurance sports seriously, which is much different than having a mom who simply exercises to stay in shape. As a child you learn that being a mother is also about being physically strong and mentally tough enough to ignore pain in the pursuit of victory, even if that victory is only to beat one’s own personal best time. Nobody has to tell the child of a runner-mom that women have to be especially strong to survive and flourish in this world. Heartbroken by the loss of her son, Ginger almost immediately began speaking out about drug and alcohol addiction along with her husband, social worker Larry Katz, Ian’s step-father. Ginger continues to be a competitive athlete, and an annual nine-mile road race occurs in Norwalk, Connecticut each summer that honors the life of her son Ian.

My colleagues and  I feel compelled to share Ginger’s curriculum and message with my high school students. My  co-teacher, Lynne Rudolph-Farrell, veteran special educator, has agreed to use Sunny’s Story in our small co-taught reading class, which we have decided to design using inspirational non-fiction content. In future years, I hope that this book will be used with a larger population of students in our school district. For more information about Ginger’s curriculum and speaking engagements, please visit her website: http://www.couragetospeak.org.