DALLAS – Honoring the past, celebrating the present and future.
 
That was the spirit of the morning at the Mount Auburn STEAM Academy in east Dallas where the Cotton Bowl Foundation, Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, College Football Playoff (CFP) Foundation and three North Texas-based bowl games teamed up to celebrate the CFP Foundation's 10 years of inspiring and empowering educators and surprise teachers to show appreciation for their hard work and dedication in the classroom.
 
The pep rally and presentations at Mount Auburn came on the Big Day for Teachers, the largest single-day effort of community impact across college football, as a part of this year's Extra Yard for Teachers Week.
 
During the presentation that featured 1987 Heisman Trophy winner, 2009 College Football Hall of Fame inductee, Cotton Bowl Classic and Mount Auburn alum Tim Brown, the Cotton Bowl Foundation and CFP Foundation awarded grants totaling $200,000 ($50,000 each) to Catch Up & Read, City Teaching Alliance, The Educator Collective and United to Learn.
 
The presentations did not end there. Representatives from the Cotton Bowl Foundation, Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic and CFP Foundation went into the classroom of Michelle Reyes, a first-year art teacher at Mount Auburn, and surprised her with a $1,000 donor-choose gift card, a Cotton Bowl Classic backpack filled with gifts and two tickets to the 88th Classic on Friday, Dec. 29 at AT&T Stadium.
 
"It's important for the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic to be more than just a championship football game. We want to extend our influence and our ability to help throughout our community and we do this through our Cotton Bowl Foundation," said Dave Brown, Chair, Cotton Bowl Athletic Association and Cotton Bowl Foundation. "We have such a great relationship with the CFP Foundation. With their support, we're able to double the giving to organizations like the four we were able to provide grants to today."
 
"To be able to have a partnership with organizations as generous and that care about the community as the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic and the Cotton Bowl Foundation is really amazing for us," said Britton Banowsky, Executive Director, CFP Foundation. "We've impacted so many organizations and impacted teachers and students through our combined partnership."
 
 
The four organizations impacted this year share the common theme of giving teachers the support they need to create and maintain positive and inclusive environments in their classrooms.  
 
Catch Up & Read is a nonprofit, community-funded organization that is transforming the lives of at-risk elementary students in the Dallas Independent School District by equipping them to read on grade level by third grade. The organization collaborates with teachers, principals and administrators on an instruction and tutoring program that drives extraordinary and sustainable results.
 
"It's such an honor to be a part of the community that is making a difference for teachers and students," said Catherine LeBlanc, Founder, Catch Up & Read. "Our next generation (of teachers) needs the support so that they can have the success to earn a living wage and be productive citizens. We've been blessed to have the support of the Cotton Bowl Foundation and College Football Playoff Foundation contributing to our programs in significant ways."
 
City Teaching Alliance, previously known as Urban Teachers, is a multi-city non-profit organization with the mission to improve the educational and life outcomes of children in urban schools by preparing culturally competent, effective career teachers who accelerate student achievement and disrupt systems of racial and socioeconomic inequity. Since 2016, City Teaching Alliance Dallas has welcomed 370 residents and teachers working in classrooms in nearly 100 schools across North Texas.
 
"This money is huge. It helps us bring more teachers to Dallas and makes our work possible," said Anthony Hernandez, Executive Director, City Teaching Alliance Dallas. "The Big Day for Teachers is essential to shedding light on what this profession is. This shows us the real work – it's about students, it's about making a difference and it's about the care and the love that our teachers put into the work every day."
 
The Educator Collective is a professional community made up of teachers and other education professionals from across the Dallas-Fort Worth area that provides opportunities to grow in three areas of focus – community, leadership, and well-being – and gives teachers the resources and relationships needed to build lasting and accomplished careers in education.
 
"Any day where teachers are appreciated and reminded about how valuable they are is a great day," said Priti Ahuja, Interim Executive Director, The Educator Collective, "This is extremely meaningful and it will allow more teachers to come experience our programming, which tailored just for them."
 
United to Learn is an education nonprofit with a proven model for mobilizing community partners to close opportunity gaps among Dallas-area public elementary schools and awareness gaps across the community, accelerate student achievement and develop purposeful leaders.
 
"United to Learn is so incredibly grateful for the support of the College Football Playoff Foundation and the Cotton Bowl Foundation," said Abigail Williams, Chief Executive Officer, United to Learn. "This investment is going to allow us to do what we know needs to be done. It's going to allow us to support our teachers. We hope to provide them with the learning resources that are needed in the classroom, the necessary training, especially for our brand-new teachers, and make sure we have well-trained tutors backing them up every single day in the classroom. We know that there's no one more critical in a child's long-term success than who is standing at the front of that classroom."
 
The Cotton Bowl Foundation and CFP Foundation have been partners in helping teachers be successful inside and outside of classrooms for a decade. The CFP Foundation celebrates its 10th anniversary this year as the largest sports entity in America that supports education as its primary platform. Since its inception, the CFP Foundation and its Extra Yard for Teachers platform have supported more than 500,000 teachers nationwide, creating a positive impact for more than 9.2 million students and 50,000 schools while collectively investing approximately $57 million in support of education nationwide.
 
The Cotton Bowl Foundation, the official foundation of the Goodyear Cotton Bowl Classic, serves North Texas by supporting programs that improve opportunities for underserved youth with the vision of making an impact on those who play the game, attend the game and support the game. Since 2016, the Cotton Bowl Foundation has awarded more than $2.5 million in grants and financial support benefiting non-profit organizations in the surrounding communities.
 
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