Students at a Los Angeles school raise thousands of dollars and surprise a popular teacher with a new car. Every school day for the past three years, Julio Castro has woken up at 4:30 am to ride his electric scooter six miles to the bus station, spend an hour on a bus, and then ride another mile to Yula Boys High School where he’s a math teacher. He does the same trek in reverse every evening and usually gets home after his young children have gone to bed.
His students at Yula Boys call Castro passionate and generous and are impressed with his dedication. And some realized that his difficult commute was cutting into time he could spend with his family, so a group of students, headed by senior Joshua Gerendash, decided to do something to help fix that problem. They secretly raised money starting at the end of the last school year. Their money was matched by a local philanthropic group and Galpin Mazda also pitched in for a total of around $30-thousand that they raised.
At a “teacher appreciation assembly,” a video was played that explained what students think makes Castro such a special teacher and then everyone was told to go back to class, but as they exited the gym, students formed a human tunnel and as Castro walked through it, they popped off confetti cannons and cheered. At the end of the tunnel was their gift for their teacher: a brand new blue Mazda sedan. Castro was shocked and surprised by the generous gift and says this just proves something he’s always telling his students: that all the hard work will pay off in the end.
Source: Patch.com