posted by Howard Brown 2006-07-17
Winners of the 'OfficeMax Super Hero Teacher of the Year' Contest Share Adventure with Marvel's Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four
ITASCA, Ill., July 17 -- OfficeMax, one of America's largest office supply distributors, announced that a special edition Marvel comic book titled Brain Drain, which honors middle school teachers as Super Heroes, is now available for free at OfficeMax's approximately 870 superstores across the country. Approximately 500,000 copies of the comic book are available while supplies last.
OfficeMax partnered with Marvel Entertainment and TeachersCount in a nationwide contest to find the "OfficeMax Super Hero Teacher of the Year" earlier this year. Of the 4,200 entries submitted, six winning middle school teachers and the students who nominated them were announced in June. The 12 winners are now featured as illustrated characters in the new custom comic book.
"OfficeMax has a long-standing tradition of supporting teachers through our MaxPerks for Teachers program and teacher appreciation events," states Ryan Vero, executive vice president and chief merchandising officer for OfficeMax. "Portraying real-life teachers as Super Heroes with Marvel exemplifies OfficeMax's continuing commitment to supporting education."
"As adults, we all remember teachers who were heroes in our young lives," says Robert Sabouni, vice president, Marvel Entertainment's Custom Publishing and Cover Concepts. "So, we are thrilled to honor today's heroic teachers by illustrating them alongside Spider-Man and The Fantastic Four in Brain Drain."
"Brain Drain includes Peter Parker (Spider-Man), who is working as a teacher at Midtown High. During the course of the story, Spider-Man, the Fantastic Four and each of the winning teachers exhibit heroic traits, some of which were described in the students' essays, to help save the students from Dr. Doom's knowledge-siphoning Doombots."
The winning teachers and the students who nominated them are:
Grand Prize
-- Herm Hoffmann, 6th-grade science teacher, Beck Middle School, Cherry
Hill, N.J.; nominated by Rachel Benigno, 12.
First Prize
-- Kathryn Pariseau, 8th-grade language arts teacher, Fairfax Middle
School, Bakersfield, Calif.; nominated by Cody Rhoades, 13
-- Tina Regan, 8th-grade science teacher, Fox Chapel Middle School,
Spring Hill, Fla.; nominated by Alexis Fromm, 13
-- Mario Guerrero, 6th-grade teacher, Andrew Jackson School, Selma,
Calif.; nominated by Garrett John Ghimenti, 12
-- Karen Yingling, librarian, Blendon Middle School, Westerville, Ohio;
nominated by Neil Hamrick, 12
-- Tony Pavlovich, 7th- and 8th-grade history/cartooning teacher,
Diegueno Middle School, Encinitas, Calif.; nominated by Satchel
Lieberman, 14
In addition to starring in Brain Drain, grand prize winners Hoffmann and Rachel will make an illustrated appearance in one of Marvel's Jr. Network Comic Books available in stores this fall. "I teach my students that the true test of a person's character is how he faces adversity," Hoffmann says. "I'm absolutely thrilled to appear in Brain Drain with the likes of Spider-Man and the Fantastic Four. I'm even more humbled to discover the extent of the positive impact my teaching has on students like Rachel."
OfficeMax worked in concert with the National Education Association and the American Federation of Teachers to help publicize the contest.
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