November 17, 2009 — Westside faculty, staff, parents, students, and community supporters paid tribute to former Westside elementary P.E. teacher Pat Heidlage, with the dedication of the school gym in her honor.
Heidlage was an employee of the Claremore School System for 36 years and retired in May.
“I’m blown away by this,” Heidlage said of the mural with her name and zebra logo emblazoned on the gym wall.
She reminisced about her years as a physical education teacher and high school tennis coach, noting she had “the best job in Claremore. ” She told the crowd that she always did what she thought was right and strived to make every child enjoy physical education.
She recounted one story where she had the students take their shoes off while playing on the mats in the gym. A few minutes later she realized one of the students was gone, and found her in the cafeteria kitchen, dipping gravy out of the pan with her shoe.
“Needless to say, the kids didn’t get gravy with their lunch that day,” Heidlage said.
One of her favorite comments came more recently, when one of the P.E. students asked the new P.E. teacher, “How did Mrs. Heidlage get up there to paint her name on the wall?”
The Westside PTO provided refreshments for the event and words of appreciation were shared by Claremore Superintendent Mike McClaren, Board of Education President Don Crutchfield, and Westside Principal Lou Robertson.
