Janet Howell, South Davis Community Hospital

“Janet is amazing! Janet teaches the students in the Davis School District who live at The South Davis Community Hospital. The children she teaches are medically fragile and have multiple significant disabilities…. Can you imagine walking in to “the day room,” where she teaches and seeing these dear children whom most have been sent to reside here because their families can no longer take care of them. Janet calls them her Angels. As you can imagine it’s real tough on a teacher when a student passes away in their class. For Janet this occurs too often…Janet has taught these children for over 25 years. It takes a very special educator to teach all children with different IEP’s. (Individual Education Plan). I have only substituted along side Janet. Every day Janet takes a big smile and happy demeanor to work with the children. I was amazed at how she knows what is special to each student and how she spends her own money to get purple or pink, etc., presents for them. One year she purchased fabric with different super hero’s, colors, etc., to surprise each child with a pillow case that she herself had sewn after work time. And, Janet doesn’t just extend her education with students residing at the hospital, any child that goes into the Day Room at the Hospital gets the same fantastic learning experience. Janet includes them with her warm greetings day after day. Janet doesn’t just have a challenging time to assist each child personally, Janet is their joy.”

-LaNelle Peterson