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John,
Every day, I think about what you do for our students, our patients and our communities. This week, the nation celebrates the work teachers, nurses, school lunch workers and public employees do. While sometimes these recognition weeks feel like just another Hallmark holiday, they can be an important moment for us to stop and simply acknowledge what you do. You make a difference every day: Helping students thrive and helping patients heal. Nourishing our students and nurturing our communities.
AFT is working every day to help, offering up and fighting for real solutions that make your lives and the lives of our communities better. We’re fighting for better wages and good jobs; better conditions like safe staffing and lower class size; more support services so you have the support you need to do your jobs; student debt relief; and appropriate investments in public education, healthcare, mental health, climate and other key areas. And of course, we are fighting for our fundamental freedoms as well as our democracy.
So this week, as we celebrate Teacher Appreciation Week, Public Service Recognition Week, National Nurses Week and School Lunch Hero Day, I want to say thank you. I want to express my gratitude to the many incredible teachers, public employees, nurses and school lunch workers we represent and to personally say thank you for what you do.
And it’s not just me. This week we will be lifting up stories from our members, blog posts in their own words that celebrate all that you do:
We also will be using social media to lift up members’ voices and make them go viral, so to speak. And we will be giving away gift cards to First Book for people who follow us on Instagram, so be sure to follow for a chance to win. Connect with us:
I’ll be doing a Teacher Appreciation Week event with Dr. Jill Biden at the White House on Wednesday at 6 p.m. Eastern time, which will be livestreamed on the White House site. I hope that all our teacher members have a chance to see their work honored and recognized at the White House. Dr. Biden has consistently highlighted the work our members do.
If you want to thank teachers, nurses, public employees or school staff, you can do so here. We’ll share these thank-you’s on social media.
And as the celebration weeks close out, we’re planning some big celebrations this weekend when, together with First Book, we will give away our 10 millionth book. While some people ban books, we give them away. In the past 13 years we’ve given away 10 million books to kids, helping them develop a love of reading while they build home libraries. Tune in live to events this weekend in New York City, Texas, Miami and Illinois as we celebrate how books open the world for kids and help our next generation become joyful, confident readers.
Thank you again for everything you do.
In unity,
Randi Weingarten
AFT President
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