St. Baldrick's Fundraiser - March 27th, 2014

Over $27,000 was raised on Thursday, March 27th, by the Governor Livingston High School community for St. Baldrick's Foundation, which serves to find a cure for pediatric cancers. The hair on everyone's brave head lead the cause by accepting donations from generous friends and family to see hair shaved, cut, or dyed. Isadora was teaching science at Governor Livingston High School, in Berkeley Heights, until her diagnosis in mid-October 2013. She participated in the school's first annual event in 2012 by temporarily dyeing her hair a lovely shade of green.

To honor Isadora,

the following speech was given at the event by teacher Kimberly Fleming:

A few weeks ago we lost a dear member of our GL family. I would like to take a few minutes to talk about Ms. Isadora Seibert and the impact she had on our lives. Last year, I sent out an e-mail to the staff telling them that I wanted to begin a tradition of hosting St. Baldrick's events here at Governor Livingston High School and that I would need a few people to help me organize the event. I no sooner hit send and my in box "dinged". It was Ms. Seibert emailing me back, her email read: "Kim, Let me know what you want me to do. I really want to be a part of this." Over the next few months, Ms. Seibert, Ms. Toporek, and I met frequently to plan the event. Isadora's enthusiasm never ceased. At the end of every meeting she would ask, "Is there anything else I can do? Are you sure? I have time. I can do it." She was simply amazing. I know I speak for Ms. Toporek when I say we could not have pulled off the success of last year's event without Isadora. Her participation in anything GL related was well known. She was a class advisor, moderated the Environmental Club, coached, played in the BHEF basketball games, attended the plays, rescued goldfish, the list goes on and on. Her impact here at GL is so great it seems hard to believe she was only part of our family for 3 short years. After Isadora's passing, I Googled her name just to see what would come up. The top four search results were indicative of who she was. The first was her St. Baldrick's Fundraising page.The second was her Rate My Teacher page, where one student wrote: “Ms. Seibert is the best teacher I have ever had!”The third was a link for Ramapo College's Founder's Day, which has a quote from Isadora and how she felt a calling to become a student government leader.The fourth were the Board Minutes from the meeting in 2011 which approved her employment here at GL. My Google search had completely captured her essence:Committed to helping those in needA born leader who actively worked towards community buildingAnd a dedicated and beloved teacher who will be remembered by all of those who had the good fortune to work with or be taught by her. Further down in the Google search, Isadora is quoted in a New York Post article about the media using airbrushing to define beauty. Isadora said, “Beauty is a person who doesn’t need all that.” Thank you, Isadora, for sharing your beauty with us. If you would like to honor Ms. Seibert’s memory, please donate to the Isadora Seibert Teacher Scholarship Fund.