'Enough to make my heart happy': Aurora teacher nominated by student wins free cruise

Recent Aurora High School graduate Brandon Witmer was watching YouTube in the spring when he saw an ad for a contest by Norwegian Cruise Lines called Giving Joy.

The competition, now in its third year, awards a free cruise for two to 100 teachers from across the United States and Canada. Educators can be nominated by anyone, and the public votes in the first stage of the competition.

Witmer made a note in his phone to nominate one of his teachers. But he forgot about the contest until nine days before the June 3 deadline, when he decided to nominate Melissa Foster, a Spanish and service learning teacher at Aurora High School with 18 years experience.

Days before, Foster's mother had died.

In his nomination letter to Norwegian Cruise lines, Witmer wrote that his teacher was having a rough time with the death.

"However," he continued, "Mrs. Foster only took a few days off and still attended my senior classes' graduation so she could be surrounded by the students she cares so deeply about. An opportunity at this cruise would help reward Mrs. Foster for her hard work and dedication while getting her mind off her mother's passing."

After voting by the public concluded, Foster was among the top 200 who were considered by a panel of judges. And ultimately, the panel picked Foster as one of the 100 winners.

"Just the notion that he nominated me and that people were voting for me was enough to make my heart happy," Foster said. "It kind of solidifies why we put the time in, and why we like to be around young people. I always say, everybody usually sees what's on the news, bad things, but we have great kids doing great things."

Foster won a five-day cruise on the still-under-construction Norwegian Prima. The ship embarks on its inaugural voyage on Oct. 27 from Galveston, Texas.

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Grammy Award winner Kelly Clarkson will be performing aboard the Norwegian Prima during the award ceremony honoring the winners.

'She's the teacher who leads most of the clubs'

Foster was Witmer's Spanish II teacher freshman year. He also had her again during his senior year when he took her service learning class.

"Going into my freshman year, I wanted to get more involved," said Witmer, "and she's the teacher that leads most of the clubs."

Foster oversees many of the school's extracurricular activities, including Drug Free Club, Interact Club, International Club, and Students against Violence Everywhere (SAVE); she's also involved in the Rotary Club.

Witmer joined most of these groups, encouraged by Foster's earnest interest for civic engagement.

Her enthusiasm — the willingness to partake in the same service work she encouraged her students to take part in — contributed to his decision put Foster up for the prize.

Utilizing his position as a Student Technology Support Agent at the high school, Witmer sent an email out to all the teachers in the district explaining the contest and asking them to vote.

"They loved the idea," Witmer said. "Almost all of them voted and I just didn't include Mrs. Foster in the email. I told them all it's supposed to be a surprise, so no one said anything to her." Witmer then wrote a second email, this time to the entirety of the student body, asking them to vote and swearing them to secrecy.

As a final assurance that Foster got the votes needed to win, Witmer said he got permission from the school to print out fliers with a scannable QR code that would redirect people to the contest's voting page. He canvassed four or five neighborhoods with his sister's help, putting the fliers in mailboxes.

Witmer waited to inform Foster about what was happening, only bringing his clandestine efforts to light when it looked like she was likely to win.

Foster is incredulous that she got as far as she did without her knowledge.

"I cannot believe that nobody told me," she said. "My friends all live here. I'm rooted in the community."

'Is everything okay?'

Foster was in the middle of administering a final exam before the end of the school year when she was called out into the hallway by principal Mike Hayes. At first she was worried there was an emergency.

"I walked into the hallway and there was Brandon," Foster said, "and he's holding a computer, a Chromebook, and I'm like, 'Is everything okay?'"

It was then and there that Witmer spilled the beans. The revelation of what he'd been up to brought tears to her eyes. Witmer told Foster to tell some of her family and friends so that they could vote for her, if they hadn't already. Some had and were well aware of what was going on.

It was important that Foster knew what was happening for reasons beyond vote accumulation. If she were to win, according to Witmer, Norwegian Cruise Lines was only going to call her twice and if she didn't pick up, they would have given her spot to whomever was next on the list. She couldn't afford to be missing calls from strange numbers.

Foster is excited to be able to take a vacation with her husband of 23 years. They've got a September anniversary and it can be hard for them to celebrate because of the back-to-school and sports seasons.

"It's kind of all those anniversary's and trips we didn't take because you're committing to your profession," Foster said.

Contact reporter Derek Kreider at dkreider@gannett.com.