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 Oak Ridge High School Class of 1966 - Latest News 02-09-2015 - Beautiful Tribute to Sara Ware Students Remember Favorite Teacher One by one, the sixth-graders at South-Doyle Middle School dropped their pink heart-shaped handwritten notes into a hole. Minutes later, a white dogwood tree was placed gently into the hole, and "Sara's Place" began to take shape. The 100-plus heart-shaped notes were written to teacher Sara Raley, who died of a heart attack in February. The hearts were part of a memorial service held for the teacher Thursday afternoon. "The notes were their way of saying goodbye, since they never really got a chance to," said seventh-grade teacher Dave Gorman. The notes were buried in a garden behind the South Knoxville school. This garden, which has been renamed Sara's Place, was restored in the teacher's honor. "There were 110 kids working on this project. It took five days of labor. One class at a time worked on it," Gorman said. The finishing touches were added to the garden during the ceremony when the students buried their notes and planted a white dogwood tree on top. Student Maddy Curry read a poem she wrote for Raley. "Her heart was full of joy and she was always there to comfort you," Maddy said in her poem. Later in the poem, Maddy added that when Raley left, there were tears instead of joy and people were there to lend comfort, but not her. Plenty of tears were shed on Thursday as students shared memories of the teacher they miss. Seventh-grader Rayanna Ward never had Raley as a teacher but would always stop and talk to her in the halls. "She'd always make a really bad day a little bit better," Rayanna said. Jenny Arp said Raley was a good teacher and a nice person. Jenny said she was happy she was able to plant a flower in the garden for Raley. Gary Raley shed tears as the students talked about his wife. And when the ceremony was over, kids came up to him and gave him a hug and reminisced about his wife. Gary Raley was thankful for the ceremony. "She'd love this," he said. "I thought it was a great tribute to her." He said his wife taught for 38 years. He tried to get her to retire, but she loved her students, he said. "She couldn't see herself not teaching," Gary Raley said. The only thing she loved more than her students were her two sons, he added: "She will be missed." Lindsey Ziliak can be reached at  Return to Latest News |
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