Article archive / January 2018
Originally published: . Volume 9, No. 1. Source pages: 5.
Dr. Richard Flicker has been key in the Adopt-A-Teacher Project which included efforts by the Baton Rouge Area Society of Psychologists. Dr. Flicker leads the effort at the Baton Rouge Exchange Club. Above, he is seen with a member of Senator Mary Landrieu’s staff at a past ceremony.
The Baton Rouge Area Society of Psychologists (BRASP) recently participated in the project named “Adopt- A-Teacher,” created by the Exchange Club of Baton Rouge, and managed by psychologist Dr. Richard Flicker.
BRASP has been a supporter of the Adopt-A-Teacher program for the past nineteen years, said Dr. Flicker. “BRASP adopts one of the 25 or more teachers, selected to receive a gift card to School Aids of from $300 to $600 dollars,” he said.
“The idea for Adopt-A-Teacher arose when one of the Baton Rouge Exchange Club members casually mentioned at a meeting,” said Flicker, “how much money her daughter had spent preparing her classroom as a new elementary school teacher before the school year had begun. Most of us were surprised to learn that teachers spend money out of their own pockets to equip their classrooms with learning materials.”
“Within minutes we came up with the concept of Adopt-A-Teacher. That first year, we arranged with the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board to invite five teachers to the main office where the Exchange Club gave the teachers a total of $1,900.00 in gift cards to Office Depot, Wal-Mart and School Aids.”
Over the years the program has flourished, said Flicker. “This year, the Adopt-A-Teacher program will have provided grants in the several hundreds of dollars each to an amazing total of 539 new teachers.”
“In addition to the School Aids gift card, each teacher receives a goody bag with pencils, erasers, glue sticks, rulers and other classroom supplies. The value of each goody bag is typically about $40-$50. The most frequently used expression by teachers who have received Adopt-A-Teacher grants is ‘Blessing.’ To these new teachers, a few hundred dollars means the world to them.”
The Baton Rouge Area Society of Psychologists has been contributing to this project since its second year, twenty straight years now, Flicker explained. Also, several individual psychologists have contributed to the project every year. Because of BRASP’s long history of supporting Adopt-A-Teacher and the amount donated by BRASP and several individual psychologists, one new teacher each year is specifically recognized at the School Board meeting as being adopted by BRASP, Dr. Flicker said.
That decision is based on having at least two psychologists among the judges. Most often this is Dr. Flicker and Dr. Christine Angelloz. Whichever teacher ranks highest on the two psychologists’ ballots is the BRASP adoptee, he explained.
Dr. Flicker has been a member of the Exchange Club since 1976. After relocating to Baton Rouge, he formed the Exchange Club of Baton Rouge in 1996. He has served as chair of the Adopt-A-Teacher project since its third year in 1999.
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