Great Hearts Academies is proud to announce the first-ever Teacher Excellence Fund Telethon, taking place Saturday, September 19 from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. live-streamed across Great Hearts’ YouTube, Facebook and other platforms to be announced. This event will support the Teacher Excellence Fund, which provides bonus compensation for Great Hearts teachers across Arizona every December, helping to retain and reward the state’s best teachers.

The event was launched in response to the postponement of the annual Great Hearts Gala, which will now take place on September 25, 2021, at Chateau Luxe in North Phoenix. The telethon will now be the primary fundraising vehicle for this year’s annual Teacher Excellence Fund, giving Great Hearts Academies the opportunity to reward the Arizona teachers who worked harder than ever this year, transitioning to distance learning and overcoming other obstacles created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last year, $525,467 was raised for the 2019 Teacher Excellence Fund, which provided 578 Great Hearts Arizona teachers with bonus compensation in December 2019.

“We are proud to be able to find a new and innovative way to support the incredible Great Hearts Arizona teachers,” said Erik Twist, Arizona president of Great Hearts. “This year we had the opportunity to see the talent, resilience and compassion of our teachers as they continued to educate our students at the highest level throughout the pandemic. We know that they deserve our recognition now more than ever, and we look forward to inviting our community to share in that celebration through the telethon.”

Community members can donate by calling into the telethon on September 19th, or by making a gift before the event to be recognized on the live-streamed telethon feed. In-kind donations such as catering, drinks, and snacks for telethon volunteers are also needed.

The Telethon is made possible thanks to the following generous sponsors: Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona, Liberty Buick/GMC, Arizona Bank and Trust, R. W. Baird and Co., Buck Financial, and Fester & Chapman. Sponsorship packages begin at $5,000 and are available now to both families and corporations. Great Hearts juniors, seniors, alumni and parents are invited to serve as volunteers at the telethon. To donate, sponsor, or volunteer at the Telethon visit http://www.gala.greatheartsamerica.org/telethon. Contact Brenna Norris, Major Gifts Officer, at 602-438-7045 x 322 or bnorris@greatheartsaz.org for more information.

Great Hearts is a nonprofit network of tuition-free public charter schools dedicated to improving education nationwide through classical preparatory K-12 academies. There are 22 schools and 14,000 students throughout Phoenix. More information can be found at http://www.greatheartsamerica.org.

About Great Hearts Academies

Great Hearts is a nonprofit network of tuition-free public charter schools dedicated to improving education nationwide through classical preparatory K-12 academies. As the largest provider of liberal arts classical education campuses in the country, Great Hearts Academies serve more than 22,000 students at 30 tuition-free public schools in greater Phoenix, Ariz., San Antonio, Irving, and Ft. Worth, TX, with waitlists that typically exceed enrollment. Great Hearts provides a robust liberal arts curriculum incorporating advanced math and science, a focus on the arts and foreign language, and a range of extra-curricular activities and athletics. Learn more at http://www.greatheartsamerica.org.