This year’s new teacher welcome event will be from 4 p.m. to 6 p.m. Aug. 1 on the second floor of the Odessa Marriott Hotel & Conference Center.
Organized by the Odessa Chamber of Commerce, previous welcomes for Ector County ISD teachers have been breakfasts and tailgates. Plans were modified because of COVID the last couple of years, but now that they can have events, Operations Director Lynn Van Amburgh said they decided to have it inside at the Marriott.
“… It’ll be set up kind of like it was several years ago when we were at the (Ector County) Coliseum. We had booths. It’ll be kind of like a trade show … It’ll have booths and all of our members will set up their booth. The teachers will walk around and pick up their information and all the goodies that our members have ordered for them … to give them information about their business and just to welcome them and thank them for choosing education and coming to Odessa to teach,” Van Amburgh said.
The timing is different because sometimes breakfast interfered with orientations and training the teachers might have to attend.
“We’re expecting between 200 and 250. That’s what we’ve planned for,” Van Amburgh said.
She added that she has 49 businesses that will be setting up booths.
“That’s a good … number,” Van Amburgh said.
The way it’s set up will give businesses that are Chamber members a chance to possibly draw in customers that are new to the area and for the new teachers to get some information on banking and insurance — things that any newcomer would need.
Other organizations such as churches and nonprofits will also be on hand, Van Amburgh said.
Chevron has been a major sponsor for the welcome, which has been going on since 2014.
“… We started out at OHS in the hallway out by the cafeteria. … We had 19 and now we have 49, so it has grown. Our Chamber members really love this event …,” Van Amburgh said.
“… We get all the teachers that are coming a very nice gift. We’ll have a nice bag for them and then they can use that to put goodies in when they walk around. … Chevron has been a huge supporter of this, and plus we have others, too, that have been with us since the beginning that have always come and set up booths like Frost Bank and First Basin. Complex Community (Federal) Credit Union does a whole lot. They always do something fun at their booth. So we have quite a few that have done this every year; Medical Center and ORMC, just to name a few. I hate to leave anybody out, but a lot of them have done it every year and support this …,” Van Amburgh said.
She said Odessa is one of the few communities that rolls out the welcome mat for new teachers.
“I just feel like it sends a message to the teachers that we appreciate their profession and what they do. Even (Chamber President/CEO) Renee (Earls) has … said that there’s no more noble job than educating our children. And Renee is a huge education supporter. She’s on all kinds of education committees. This really just fits in with our mission to make Odessa a better place. We think our educators are a big part of that. They educate our workforce so we just want to make sure that they feel supported and especially being new to our community we want to welcome them with open arms. I think we accomplish that …,” Van Amburgh said.
“They’re just blown away by the hospitality,” she added.
At the end of the event, she said, there will likely be a few speakers such as Ector County ISD Superintendent Scott Muri and Chamber Board Chairman Jimmy Cox.
There will be door prizes, plus appetizers, tea and lemonade.
Van Amburgh said it takes about six months to plan one of these events.
“We start usually about April-early May, once ECISD figures out how many teachers they are going to need to hire,” she said.
Then they start looking at dates and venues.
“Then, of course, we also like to let our members know early so that they can start ordering specialty items to hand out so they’ve got plenty of time … especially nowadays with shipments and everything being so delayed …,” Van Amburgh said.
