Teacher Surprised With Aggie Ring By Students’ Families

College Station schoolteacher Charlene Bandfield '99 got a gift just before Christmas, delivered by a yell leader instead of Santa.

Bandfield, a fourth-grade teacher at Forest Ridge Elementary, lost her Aggie Ring last summer.

One of her students mentioned the story to her mom, Jennifer Spahr ’99. And pretty quickly, 24 families of the students in Bandfield’s class had banded together, collecting the funds to replace it.

Now, how to surprise her?

Here’s how they set it up: For the class holiday party, a special guest came in. That would be former A&M yell leader Marty Holmes ‘87, who works with Spahr at The Association of Former Students.

Holmes talked to the fourth-graders about Midnight Yell and challenged them to invent yells of their own, such as one with their own school mascot, the Falcons. Then the winning team got a candy prize -- and Bandfield got a golden prize.

It was a complete surprise to Bandfield, who reacted with joy.  

Another of the students’ newly created yells was about “Giving.” That turned out to be the day’s true message.