photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Deborah Woodall Routledge receives a $5,000 check on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024, as part of the Dedication to Education award.

At a holiday band performance by eighth-graders from Southwest Middle School on Wednesday, the Lawrence Schools Foundation surprised the band director, Deborah Woodall Routledge, with a $5,000 award for her dedication to the school’s music program.

Routledge is this year’s recipient of the foundation’s Dedication to Education Award, which recognizes a certified teacher or paraeducator each year for going above and beyond to ensure that every student has the opportunity to learn. The award was established by the children of a group of anonymous donors who initiated the “Bobs Award” for outstanding Lawrence teachers in 1997; that recognition is awarded each spring.

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

Eighth-grade students from the Southwest Middle School band perform at the school district offices, 110 McDonald Drive, on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024.

Lawrence Schools Foundation Executive Director Dena Johnston said that many educators had nominated Routledge for the Dedication to Education Award. At Wednesday’s surprise presentation with Routledge’s friends and family, Johnston read some of the comments from those nominations.

One comment said Routledge “has helped students make sports and music an ‘and,’ not an ‘or,'” and has given many students the opportunity to grow in their love of music.

Routledge said that she’d always been surrounded by a wonderful community of educators at Southwest.

“I am just so grateful and honored,” Routledge said. ” … The four middle school band directors, we did a lot of things together, collaboratively, and I learned so much from them, and I (have) grown as a human being.”

photo by: Josie Heimsoth/Journal-World

A surprise celebration for Southwest Middle School Band Director Deborah Woodall Routledge on Wednesday, Dec. 11, 2024.