‘Thank You’ Signs Pop Up Around North Shore Schools for Teachers and Staff

TWO HARBORS, Minn.– Teachers, staff and students have been making their way back to Minnehaha Elementary in Two Harbors. And they’ve been bound to notice one of these signs along the way.

Late last week, dozens and dozens of thank you signs popped up outside the elementary school. Along with the two harbors high school and silver bay schools.

“I walked into work on Thursday and they were lining the snowbanks, all of the entrances and completely surrounding the block,” said Annie Drevecky-Rees, a kindergarten teacher at Minnehaha Elementary.

Minnehaha was in a hybrid model in the fall before going fully virtual early this winter. But has now started bringing students back in, starting with kindergarten-2nd grades a few weeks ago, followed by 3-5th graders.

As some teachers make their way back to teach students inside the school for the first time this year, they are glad to see the support for everyone inside.

“I’m thrilled that they also put the word staff on the signs because we have a lot of adults in the building who might not fall under the category of teaching staff but still do so much to keep our school running every day,” said Drevecky-Rees.

Signs even showed up in the yards of teachers and staff who are still working from home like Jenna Udenberg, a music teacher at all three schools.

“Opening my curtain and seeing it in the back alley behind my apartment was pretty cool,” said Udenberg.

Whether they were at one of the schools or at home, staff began to share the signs of support. Udenberg knows the pandemic has been tough on local communities and sees this gesture as a sign of unity in the area.

“Throughout the day as we heard that all three schools were blessed with that and there was over 100 signs and those at home were included,” said Udenberg. “So just feeling of being seen and that people are just willing to say ‘hey we see you and we care about you and we got you.’ that’s awesome.”

While they still don’t know who is behind the effort, teachers hope the goodwill doesn’t stop here.

“It is still a mystery,” said Drevecky-Rees.

“It must’ve been a group effort or an organization of something and I’m sure they would want us to pay it forward,” said Udenberg.