The Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce has announced the 1998 Educator of the Year Award winners.

Honorees are Barbara Blanchard, administration award; Donna Ellis, secondary award; Joan A. Haring, elementary award; and Dr. David Kunz, post-secondary award.

Blanchard is the principal of Washington Elementary School where she has worked for the past 30 years and attended elementary school as a child. She has been an educator for the past 36 years and said it has always been her first career choice.

"I feel my mission in life is to pass on to others what was so freely given to me at Washington," she wrote in her application. "Truly teaching is the wonderful and exciting work that rewards not only me but all of us."

Ellis has been a secondary teacher at Central High School for nine years and has been teaching for 29 years. As a child she traveled with her father, who was an Army colonel in the CIA and was educated in such faraway places as Naples, Italy and the Panama Canal Zone. She learned Italian and Spanish languages by being immersed in the culture and later decided she wanted to share her knowledge with others.

"I feel like I can open up new windows of opportunity and global knowledge for my students," she wrote in her application. "I try to instill an intrinsic desire to learn not only the language but to learn, to understand and appreciate the insight gained through other cultures and customs. Each day we continue on our path in building a bridge from the classroom to the world."

Haring has been an elementary school teacher at St. Mary Cathedral Grade School for 27 of her 39 years of teaching. She will retire this year, but said she believes the rewards of teaching will always be with her in her scrapbook full of memories.

"Some of my favorites are the many letters I have received from former students -- the graduation announcements, the wedding invitations, the birth announcements. All are important events in the lives of people who wanted to share their news with me," she wrote.

Dr. David Kunz has been teaching at Southeast Missouri State University as a finance professor for eight years. In that time he has tried to continually evolve with his teaching methods and students. "I have never taught a course the same way twice," he said. "I am always experimenting in an effort to increase student learning."

The Chamber of Commerce's education committee has sponsored the annual awards since 1994. The post-secondary category was added last year.

The 1997 recipients of the awards were Dr. Barbara Kohlfeld, administration; Catherine L. Kapfer, elementary; Kathy Wright, secondary; and Dr. Keith Russell, post-secondary.

Honorees will receive a cash award of $500 and a crystal apple of recognition May 7 during the Educator of the Year Award banquet. The event is open to the public. Cost of the dinner is $13.