Rachel Neutzling Is Our Teacher Of The Week

Every week we honor a teacher from our area to be our "Teacher Of The Week." We surprise them with gifts and a wonderful nomination letter. We usually stop by a classroom, but this time, it was a little bit different kind of surprise that took place at Pizza Ranch.

This week, we honor Rachel Neutzling. I could go on and on about Rachel, but I think it's best if you just watch the video and read this letter we received from Jessi Goerger:

I will start off by saying that Rachel does not only fully deserve teacher of the week, she should get teacher of the year, better yet teacher of the decade!!! Rachel is a Special Education teacher at Rocori middle school. She is so much more though! She teaches with her heart on her sleeve and her students are not only her students for 7th and 8th grade but we are (as she calls us) her kids. She is still in contact with students who are upwards of 27 years old! She has always stuck with us kids through the good and the bad. She is so generous and has such a kind heart with a radiating, and free spirited soul! I honestly do not even have any more words for how amazing she is! Rachel recently found out that she is battling stage 4 Pancreatic and Liver Cancer. She is currently undergoing chemotherapy. I can say with certainty that I am speaking for everyone who knows her, we were all so deeply saddened by this news! However, if there is one person who could beat this, it is Rachel! In shortly over one day of being made public, her Facebook fundraiser had collected $10,000! Between pizza sales at Jimmy’s, a benefit at Winner’s and all the wishful thinking of the people in the community; Cold Spring, Richmond and Rockville really came together to their show support for her. There is nothing anyone can say or do to make this all go away... but at the very least we can make sure she knows how important she is and has been to everyone! Thank you for being a part of showing her exactly how big of a difference she has made!

There was a lot of love in that room last night. Many friends and family members came out to be a part of this wonderful surprise.

Huge thanks to our Teacher of the Week sponsors that help to make our surprise each week so much more fun:  Great Harvest Bread, Concrete Image Salon, Coyote Moon Grille and All-Star Trophy and Awards.