What a great event we have with Pack the Backpack, presented by Central Office Supply, a division of Minuteman and Kix 101.1! Each month during the school year, we will be awarding $101 to a Kix Country classroom to help out with supplies. We will award the prize on the last Wednesday of the month. You can listen to each new winner at 8:30a on the Morning Kix Start.

Our February winner is 5th grade teacher at South Tama Middle School, Ashley Raue. Ashley was nominated by Angela Popelka. Here is the letter nominating Mrs. Ashley Raue:

To whom it may concern,

I believe you should pick Ashley Raue as a back the back pack winner. Ashley teaches 5th grade at the South Tama County middle school and has had my daughter Terri and now has my twins Destiny and Desiray. When Terri was in 5th grade she didn’t have any interest in school she hated to go but that all changed because of Ashley. Ashley takes the time to get to know her students and what makes them tick. She cares for each student as if they where her own. She makes sure her students know and feels important and worthy of being a happy well rounded student and because of that Terri found her love of school and learning and became a straight A student with a love of reading. Ashley is always doing what she can to make sure her students have to be the most successful. Ashley’s students get a book for their birthday. I know she has to be putting her personal time and money into her class each year to make these students successful. This year Ashley has found herself not able to be there as much as she would like to be because of unexpected medical needs that have surfaced. Ashley’s family needs her and she knows in order to be a successful teacher and do what she does for her students she needs to also take care of herself and her family. My twins are missing there teacher horribly right now but they also understand taking care of yourself and your family is important too. So even when she’s absent she is still impacting and teaching her students valuable life lessons and by being a winner of back the back pack I think it would help relive Ashley by knowing her students are still getting the extra care she would most certainly be giving to them if she didn’t have to be absent and it would help the students get what they need to be extra successful in Ashley’s absence. Please consider Ashley Raue as a back the back pack winner so that she knows her students care about her and her family as much as she cares about each and every student that crosses her path.

-Angela Popelka

Below you can listen to my interview with Mrs. Raue!

Nominate your Kix Country class by submitting a letter to us at backpack@kixweb.com.

https://youtu.be/4K9asfRagw8

During FFA Week, YouTube sensation from Central Iowa, Cole the Cornstar stopped by to visit with me on the Morning Kix Start.

Listen below to the interview. I ask him about his start in Agriculture and what it is like to go from farmer to a famous farmer with over 220-thousand YouTube followers.

Also, check out his latest episode:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zI3R56Mgnfc