In less than a week, bowlers at four Volusia County centers will take to the lanes, raising money that directly helps the county's public-school teachers and students. The FUTURES Foundation's 17th annual Bowl-A-Thon kicks off in Daytona Beach, DeLand, Deltona and New Smyrna Beach on Feb. 20 and 21 and continues in Ormond Beach on March 13 and 14.

By the end of the Bowl-A-Thon, we'll have had teams on more than 270 lanes. You can help them by making a per-pin pledge.

New to the Bowl-A-Thon this year is Wii Bowling for Education. For this first-time component, we're looking for virtual bowlers to participate at Sam's Club in Daytona Beach, 1175 Beville Road, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Feb. 27 and 28 and March 6. For a $5 donation, you can Wii Bowl for Volusia County Schools, plus you'll have a chance to win one of the trophies for the top three scorers and an entry in a drawing for a Wii game console and gift certificates for Sam's Club. Get your tickets in advance here.

We anticipate tripling participation in the Bowl-A-Thon for 2010, enlisting more than 5,000 bowlers and raising $55,000 to support Volusia County's classrooms. For Bowl-A-Thon sponsorship opportunities, contact Beth Butera, FUTURES Director, at (386) 255-6475, ext. 50730.

Kristy Kuches, a seventh-grade math teacher from Heritage Middle School in Deltona, is Volusia County Schools' Teacher of the Year for 2011. She will serve as Volusia County's Teacher of the Year until February 2012, representing all of Volusia's teachers.  

She received her award before an audience of more than 900 friends of public education at the Hilton Daytona Beach Oceanfront Resort. FUTURES and the Daytona Beach Regional Chamber of Commerce co-hosted the Feb. 5 celebration, presented by Bright House Networks.  

The newly named Teacher of the Year came to Volusia County Schools in 1993 and taught fifth grade at Discovery Elementary until 2000. She then moved to Forest Lake Elementary, teaching fourth and fifth grades. In 2004, she moved to Osteen Elementary to teach fifth grade for two years and then served as the math/science special area teacher for all grade levels. She has been teaching at Heritage Middle since 2007.

Technology is an integral part of Kuches' classroom.  She maximizes
student achievement by using Classroom Performance System (CPS) clickers, self-created PowerPoint lessons and a classroom Web site. The clickers engage every student and give each immediate and anonymous
feedback on answers. Students easily can reference her PowerPoints at home by accessing the Web site.

Kuches has been described as "a teacher who thrives on turning around students who hate math." Her students are rewarded with "Kuches Kash" for asking questions or seeking help for themselves. The teacher also has found her students work very hard to learn something so they can serve as peer tutors and help someone else. They hardly realize how they are helping themselves.

Kuches succeeds Kelly Conway, an Advanced Placement psychology and dance teacher from New Smryrna Beach High School, who was Volusia County's 2010 Teacher of the Year.

"Over the past 25 years, FUTURES has been able to provide much needed
resources to teachers as a result of the generous support that we have
received from corporate and individual members of our community," FUTURES President Len Marinaccio said. "Celebrating our teachers' accomplishments in such a visible way is very rewarding to all of us at the foundation."    

Other major sponsors included Daytona 500 Experience, Volusia Teachers
Organization, Halifax Health, Bank of America, Brown & Brown, Florida Power & Light, Kennedy Space Center Federal Credit Union, University of Central Florida, Nova Southeastern University, Consolidated Tomoka and Diamond Suzuki. More than 100 businesses and organizations in Volusia County also contributed donations of goods and services to Volusia's Teacher of the Year program.