Wendy Cappiello, a member of the Salmon River Teachers Association, served as a teacher in the Salmon River Central School District.

I have been retired for three years after 35 years of teaching at Salmon River Central School District in Fort Covington, New York.Our district encompasses the St. Regis Mohawk Indian Reservation and provides educational services for not only Native Americans on the United States side of the border, but also some native students on the Canadian side of the reservation.

I loved my job. In addition to teaching six classes of English Language Arts a day, I also volunteered in my community in church, as a lector and Eucharistic minister, and in other capacities. I did this and still do this because this is what we do. We give back to our communities; we are educators.