Thursday June 29, 2023

FEATURE: The clouds in Spotsy are blocking our brightest lights | Fourth of July Events |

FEATURE - The clouds in Spotsy are blocking our brightest stars

We often hear of outstanding individuals from people who want to celebrate another’s success. This story began with such a request - an email from a retired teacher at Massaponax High School asking that we shine a light on an extraordinary student. The story quickly became about more than the student, however. What follows is a celebration of success, a hard look at the pain too many of us live with, and the consequences of the scorched-earth politics currently destroying Spotsylvania County. In 25 years of reporting, I’ve never told a story quite like it.

by Martin Davis

In 2022, Renee Johannesen had finally had enough of the “dysfunction junction,” as she says, that is the Spotsylvania County School Board and retired from her position at Massaponax High School teaching marketing.

She is the type of teacher that most any student would like to have. Before entering the classroom, she worked for 28 years in marketing at the Sony Corporation, where she traveled widely and worked to promote cutting edge technologies.

She took early retirement so she could enter the classroom, and work with students like Ellie Butler.

“All my children have gifts,” Johannesen tells F2S, “but some just shine a little brighter than others.”

That’s Butler.

What has unfolded over the years, however, is a story about much more than a talented teacher and an unusually gifted student who has already achieved a great deal and is now on the launch pad to take flight and reach even loftier heights.

It’s the story of an American teenager, the precarious line she walks between soaring success and ruinous tragedy, and the community of educators who are guiding her along the way.

It’s also a cautionary tale about what is being lost as certain adults try to “protect” children, and about the indomitable spirit of youths and how they are rising above adult dysfunction.

Shining a bit brighter

Like most high school students, Ellie Butler had a project to do, this one for Johannesen’s marketing class. The assignment was simple enough - research a nonprofit organization.

Rather than simply going online and doing a power point presentation, Butler decided to go straight to the source.

“I picked pediatric cancer,” she says, and decided to bring in Andie Ayers to speak with her class.

Ayers is the co-founder emeritus of a local nonprofit - the Fairy Godmother Project - dedicated to helping families with children fighting pediatric cancer.

“They give the gift of time to families,” Butler says. “Fairy Godmother Project wants to alleviate any pressures the family might face. This can mean mowing the lawn, cleaning the house, giving gift cards so family can focus on the patient and not day-to-day activities.”

Johannesen remembers Ayers being very well received by the class, and she remembers how important that was to Butler, too.

Butler has no direct connection to pediatric cancer, she tells F2S, but she understood the most important aspect of the work very quickly. “This is an important issue that we have to address,” she said, “and I’m the kind of person who just dives in headfirst and keeps going until I’m done.”

So when the project was over, Butler decided she wasn’t.

The summer after her freshman year, she asked to do an internship at Fairy Godmother, and Ayers agreed.

Butler being Butler, she just dove in.

“I wanted to do more than hang signs. So I asked our high school for permission to sell t-shirts at a football game to raise awareness for FGP.”

Massaponax gave her the greenlight, and in September of her sophomore year Butler organized a “Heart of Gold” game.

“I don’t think the players wore anything,” she recalled, “but everyone showed up wearing Heart of Gold and we sold t-shirts, and we had table providing info for how to raise money.”

All told, Butler’s fundraiser that night netted some $4,000.

In 2018 she decided to do more, and spoke at a local Rotary Club meeting, and wrote local high schools to encourage them to get involved, too.

At least two high schools in the area got on board.

What drives a student like Butler to throw herself into a project like this, when she has no personal connection to the cause?

“This was my ‘the world is bigger than me’ awakening,” Butler says.

And that’s something that has been in her family’s DNA even before she was born.

She credits her mom and dad with doing a great job of raising her and her brother.

“Mom was stay-at-home, and dad worked for the government,” she said. “We were taught others before self.”

Because of his job, Butler’s dad missed a lot of family events. She surely missed having her dad there, but she understood early on that he wasn’t there because “someone is in danger and they needed him.”

“I was raised to understand that the world is bigger than me.”

Johannesen saw the impact her family had Butler her early on.

“It’s her family and her faith,” she said, and “and Ellie’s surrounded herself with like-minded people who support her.”

Nearly extinguished

But even the brightest stars sometimes slip into the shadows.

While it’s easy to look at Butler and believe she is the ideal child with her life together; like everyone, she faced personal demons.

“I have struggled with mental health,” she says.

To the point that this seemingly very together young women made an attempt to end her life.

“I had tried so many resources, doctors, and nothing was working for me,” she says. “I didn’t have the patience to keep waiting.”

Fortunately, her attempt was unsuccessful, and she finally found the help she needs.

“It’s not easy to get help,” she says, “but there are people who will guide you.”

One of those people is Johannesen. The two remain close, and Butler talks openly of the support that her former teacher has provided, and continues to provide, for her.

Their connection is deeper than student-teacher, however. It’s survivor-survivor.

“I am a 30-year breast cancer survivor,” Johannesen says, “and I’ve always been very open about my diagnosis.”

There’s an openness to Butler too, that Johannesen sees, that she believes will help her former student survive and thrive.

“It’s the children’s factor,” Johannesen says. “Ellie’s challenge on a personal level is her mental health, and she’s doing everything she can to stay healthy. With her philanthropic work in pediatric cancer, she can just be there and be useful. … I always see her around children.”

Shining at William & Mary; learning stories

Today, Butler is a student at William & Mary. And her work with pediatric cancer continues, but on a bigger scale.

Though she initially didn’t want to pledge a sorority, she ultimately decided to pledge the Delta Delta Delta sorority at William & Mary.

What drew her there was its ties to St. Jude’s hospital. Butler quickly fit in, helping the Tri-Delts raise thousands. They did pancake sales, letter-writing campaigns, and other events like Pumpkins for Patients and the No More Cancer Rally.

True to her “world is bigger than me” philosophy, however, Butler has kept the focus on the charity and the kids, and not what the work does for her.

After serving as the director of financial operations for the sorority, she wondered if she was to have a role the following year.

“I have a motto – Give as much as I can, and if I’m not needed, Step away.”

The Tri-Delts made it clear that they needed her.

“They put me in the VP of community relations role. I oversee the director of PR and Marketing, Philanthropy, and Social within the sorority.” And later this summer, she’s going to travel to St. Judes to see first-hand the impact that the money her sorority is raising is having on the lives of children and their families.

That’s good for Butler, to be sure.

“This work forces me to see outside of myself. It keeps me grounded.”

But it’s also teaching her to learn to hear what others have to say about their experience of life.

“Pediatric cancer is something that I pray to god we never end up arguing about. It doesn’t discriminate among political parties or religious views. It attacks wherever it can,” she says.

And that awareness has helped her to spend more time learning about others.

“We’ve got to learn other people’s stories,” she says, and then relates how one class at William & Mary is helping her do that.

“I took a class on DEI (Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion) in the workplace. I didn’t know if I wanted to step into a classroom that was leading divisive conversations,” she remembers. “But I stepped out of that class every day a better person, learning to treat people with respect and dignity.”

We adults have a lot to learn

The story of Johannesen and Butler is one that shows education at its very best. When one combines talented teachers, inquisitive students, and the space to explore difficult topics together, wonderful things can occur.

Both Johannesen and Butler lament that the actions of adults on the school board who have lost their way is negatively affecting the school system they both gave so much to, and learned so much from.

“When you get so caught up in a particular cause,” Butler says, “you get hyperfixated and you lose sight of everything else. You pour, and pour, pour into something that you really care about, while everything around you is burning down.”

And that is how we get to book bans, book burnings, and school leaders who won’t talk with each other, with parents, or anyone outside their own small circles.

The key, for Butler, is finding something that’s bigger than yourself. And that something is pediatric cancer.

“We’re trying to help members of a society so vulnerable that they can’t help themselves. … We can argue about how to go about a certain task – but we can’t argue to the point of hatred. For me, we’re arguing about a way a life can be saved.”

And understanding that is what keeps her focused on what matters. “Really focusing on putting my energy into pediatric cancer, that’s what keeps me from going down the rabbit hole.”

The rabbit hole, however, is where the Spotsylvania School Board operates.

Johannesen sees the futility of it as well.

“We spend so much time with discipline, and parents who want to ban books, and the noise on the school board. Ellie sees through it, and she knows that she’s better than this, and is going to accomplish great things.

And it’s not just Butler.

“We pay so much attention to the children that are not following the rules, and the really good kids like Ellie – and dozen others I could name,” Johannesen says, “we’re not celebrating them as we should.”

Celebration is where we need to return.

For while the house is burning down as a few leaders can’t get beyond their own narcissistic needs, those students who understand that the world is bigger than them are moving on and accomplishing great things.

And those teachers who are leading them are, unfortunately, stepping away or moving on to a place where their openness and their hearts are welcomed and celebrated and allowed to soar.

And therein lies the cautionary tale. The Johannesens and the Butlers of this community are going to soar regardless.

The question is, will we celebrate them and empower them to help others soar? Or chase them away, and allow their lights to shine where they are valued?

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Fourth of July

Photo by Jim Strasma on Unsplash

There are lots of interesting events happening this Fourth. Here are two in the city worth attending.

Want to share your events? Send an email to the editor. We’ll get it in.

Story Time & Family Fun | Rising Sun Tavern

Tuesday, July 4, 2023

11:30 am and 1:30 pm

Join us on the lawn behind the Rising Sun Tavern as costumed interpreters will read children’s books on the American Revolution and this historic day in our nation’s history.  Bring the family for face painting and additional fun activities themed around the Fourth of July.  This family event is free and open to the public.  Tours are available at standard admission prices.

Public Reading of the Declaration of Independence | Hugh Mercer Apothecary Shop

Tuesday, July 4, 2023

11:00 am, 1:00 pm, 3:00 pm

Join WHM on the steps of the Hugh Mercer Apothecary Shop as we celebrate our independence with a live reading of the Declaration of Independence.  This is a moving experience you won’t want to miss!  This event is free and open to the public.  Tours are available at standard admission rates.