At a recent Cinnaminson Board of Education meeting, the board, along with the principals of Cinnaminson High School, Cinnaminson Middle School, Eleanor Rush Intermediate School and New Albany Elementary School honored several members of the school district with 2019 Achievement Awards.
One of the winners was Lisa Sucharski, a librarian at Cinnaminson High School. Sucharski has been in the Cinnaminson school district for more than 20 years, but has only been a librarian for a few years. While many of Sucharski’s co-workers raved about how great and outgoing Sucharksi is, it was still a surprise for her to receive an achievement award.
“It feels really great to get this achievement award,” said Sucharski. “I work with a lot of nice people, and when they say nice things about it feels great, but I was surprised when they gave me the award. Principal Ryan Gorman presented the plaque to me during a faculty meeting. I was shocked.”
Sucharski began in the school district as a substitute teacher. She eventually became a permanent substitute floating between all four buildings of the district. Sucharski then became the co-aid in charge of the yearbook before doing a couple brief stints as the librarian. When the previous librarian left to assume a new role, Sucharski became the new librarian. To Sherry Spier, technology and library services coordinator, Sucharski has gone above and beyond since becoming the librarian.
“Lisa goes above and beyond her job description every day,” said Spier. “Most of her job includes making sure the library is up and running and making sure the kids are safe, but she goes beyond that. She makes displays for the library, she gets to know the kids on a personal level so that they feel comfortable going to her if they need anything. You never have to think twice with her, she’s always on top of everything.”
“I think when we presented her with the award she was surprised because she does so much here and never does it to be recognized,” Spier continued.”She is one of the kindest and most caring and incredibly dedicated person I’ve ever met. Also, she has a background in advertising, so her creativity allows her to think outside of the box. It’s amazing to me.”
Some of the creativity Sucharski shows is when she decorates the library for Women’s History Month, Black History Month and autism awareness. She is also involved in programs such as Battle of the Books and the book club. The Battle of the Books program allows students to create teams and read 10 books. At the end of the year, the students have a day where they come into the library to play a game where they have to answer questions about the books. The team that wins gets a pizza party. The book club allows students to read books that relate to things that they are going through, which gives them encouragement to come back to the library and continue reading.
“It’s difficult to get kids to read,” said Sucharski. “The kids have to read for school, so convincing them to read for fun when they would rather play video games or use their cell phones is hard, but we reach out to their teachers and lure them in with food. Anything to do to get them reading.
“Once they realize that it is fun and they can relate to it, they come back for more,” Sucharski continued.”We sometimes have kids that have never even taken a book out, but these programs help push them into that direction.”
