A Huge Honor for Lisa

Second Post of the Day 

A throwback post to August, 2025.

Lisa & Purdue's Golden Hammer Educator Event

Saturday was an exciting day for Lisa - she was selected and recognized as one of Purdue University's Golden Hammer Educators!

Needless to say, it was a very big honor! There was a brunch held with Purdue's First Lady, Dr. Kei Hui, and several Deans where the honorees were recognized, given tickets for the football game (and their guests, too), and an appearance on the Jumbotron during the game where the sold out stadium of 61,000 applauded her and the other recipients. 

A goodie bag full of lots of Purdue swag was given out during the brunch.

My degrees may be from Big Ten rival Illinois, but I'll wear a Purdue tee when they honor my daughter!

And I'll make sure everyone knows who I am related to!

Craig's degrees are from Purdue so his wardrobe is full of Purdue shirts.

He, too, made sure everyone knew who he was with!

This young girl attends the school where Lisa teaches. She was not one of Lisa's students, but she was so excited to see Lisa and kept coming over to talk to her. 

Dr. Kei Hui, First Lady of Purdue and an advocate of Education, spent the day with us. She was laughing here because of the sign behind her. 

She jokingly invited two of the Golden Hammer's sponsoring Deans to come up and cover it up so it "doesn't spoil everyone's photo opportunities."

Brunch over, the honorees went with the Deans and Dr. Kei to film their Jumbotron appearances to be played later during the game.

Craig and I had some time to wait, and as we walked around through the crowds, the Purdue Band came marching through and into the stadium. I happened to be seated in my walker right where they were marching and had a great view of the band.

If you watch to the end (it's 2:00 long) you will see this come through!

The World's Largest Drum! Not gonna lie - it's on my bucket list to drum it some day! I was SO close to it this afternoon!! 

So was Lisa! She was on the field with the drum - lucky girl!

Dr. Kei Hiu stayed with the honorees and was happy to take selfies with them. Here they are pre-game while filming their Jumbotron appearances.

And here it is! (1:10)

I did not stay for the game for a couple of reasons as my back was hurting (we'd taken two cars thinking that that might happen.) But the game was televised so I was able to watch from home.

A shot of the sold out stadium of 61,000 people with the Jumbotron in the end zone. (The domed building to the left is Mackey Arena, Purdue's basketball arena.)

Purdue won the game 0-28 which was icing on the cake of a wonderful day. (Can you see the drum down there?)

Congratulations, Lisa! You are an outstanding teacher and you have taught me new teaching skills when watching you. This honor was very well deserved and as Dr. Kei said in her remarks,

"Teaching is the one profession that creates all other professions."

Amen to that!