‘Meant everything’: Wichita State basketball player surprises local teacher with reward
Nearly a decade had passed since Xavier Bell had walked into Lisa Boor’s classroom at Allison Middle School, but the seventh-grade teacher reacted like no time had passed.
Boor was equally surprised and confused by the Tuesday visit, as the current Wichita State men’s basketball player was accompanied by Allison principal David Self and a cameraman.
After wrapping her former student in a bear hug, Boor was given a hand-written letter from Bell to read aloud.
“Your dedication to education and positive influence you’ve had on students in Wichita deserves to be recognized,” she said, repeating Bell’s words. “I’m excited to be given the opportunity to give back to you! As Wichita State athletics celebrates the College Football Playoff Foundation’s ‘Big Day,’ you are being awarded $1,000. I hope these funds will provide you with the resources to further enhance your classroom and continue making a difference in the lives of your students, just like you did mine.”
By the end, Boor was in tears.
After 34 years of teaching in Wichita Public Schools, Boor is retiring at the end of this school year. She said the surprise gift was the “icing on the cake” for her career.
“Reading that letter meant everything to me,” Boor told The Eagle. “As a teacher, you hope that you impact people’s lives, but you never really know unless they tell you. So to hear that was like the most wonderful thing as a teacher to have someone come back and tell you that.”
While WSU has no college football team, American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco is a board member for the College Football Playoff Foundation and encouraged each member school to participate in the annual celebration dedicated to honoring and recognizing great teachers.
Considering he is a Wichita native and Andover Central graduate, Bell was an ideal candidate to pick a local teacher for the reward. The 6-foot-2 guard is entering his junior year of eligibility with the Shockers.
At the start of his letter, Bell mentioned why Boor has always stood out to him. It began when she was a chaperone for a seventh-grade trip to Washington D.C. and Bell recounted how the teacher took him under her wing with “gentle but firm authority to make an impact on my life that I’ll never forget.”
Boor laughed when asked about the trip and said Bell was anything but trouble. She remembered a kind and outgoing seventh-grader who flashed the same smile on Tuesday that could always light up a room.
“He may think he was a troublemaker, but he was a good kid,” Boor said. “Middle-schoolers are always getting into things. That’s part of growing up. Xavier was always a hard worker and he was one of those kids who was clearly good at something, but he was always nice to other people. I can tell you that he did not get to where he is by putting others down. Him and his family are such wonderful people.”
So what will Boor, who now teaches a class about ancient civilization, do with the $1,000?
One of her first ideas was to fund a class field trip to the Museum of World Treasures in downtown Wichita, which houses Egyptian mummies, Roman pottery and other artifacts that would be of interest to her class.
Another thing on the wish list? A volleyball net.
“Our little sixth-graders love playing volleyball during recess, but we don’t have a net outside,” Boor said. “They all take off their (school) ID’s and line them up and whenever someone has crutches, they use those to make a line and that’s the net. I think the kids would really love that.
“I’m still in shock because Xavier is such an amazing kid and for him to remember me and think of me for something like this, it’s just a gift from God.”
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