James Renfer, left, and Dana Ungureit, right, try out the chairs retiring teacher Mary Ann Paddock-Kaminski, center, presented to them on Thursday. The two younger teachers also are each holding another gift, a rosary that Paddock-Kaminski had included with the chairs.
                                 Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader

James Renfer, left, and Dana Ungureit, right, try out the chairs retiring teacher Mary Ann Paddock-Kaminski, center, presented to them on Thursday. The two younger teachers also are each holding another gift, a rosary that Paddock-Kaminski had included with the chairs.

Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader

Retiring teacher has farewell gift for friends who were once her students

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<p>Mr. Renfer’s name is on the back of his chair.</p>
                                 <p>Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader</p>

Mr. Renfer’s name is on the back of his chair.

Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader

<p>Mrs. Ungureit’s name is on the back of her chair.</p>
                                 <p>Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader</p>

Mrs. Ungureit’s name is on the back of her chair.

Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader

<p>The seats of the chairs are emblazoned with colorful images of schoolhouses, books, penmanship samples and, of course, an apple for the teacher.</p>
                                 <p>Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader</p>

The seats of the chairs are emblazoned with colorful images of schoolhouses, books, penmanship samples and, of course, an apple for the teacher.

Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader

<p>Teachers Dana Ungureit and James Renfer unveil the mysterious gift that retiring teacher Mary Ann Paddock-Kaminski had waiting for them in the hallway at Wyoming Area Catholic School in Exeter on Thursday.</p>
                                 <p>Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader</p>

Teachers Dana Ungureit and James Renfer unveil the mysterious gift that retiring teacher Mary Ann Paddock-Kaminski had waiting for them in the hallway at Wyoming Area Catholic School in Exeter on Thursday.

Mary Therese Biebel | Times Leader

When retiring teacher Mary Ann Paddock-Kaminski invited her colleagues Dana Ungureit and James Renfer to meet with her on Thursday morning, they had no idea what kind of presents she had waiting for them.

But when she directed them into a hallway at Wyoming Area Catholic School and urged them to remove a blue covering, the younger teachers found two personalized chairs, decorated with colorful images of schoolhouses and crayons, books and pencils, flags and a ruler.

“They’ll be a conversation piece,” Paddock-Kaminski said as Ungureit and Renfer marveled at the artistic creations and said they’d use them in their classrooms.

You could say the retiring teacher had introduced her two friends to a “seat of learning” — and it wasn’t the first time.

“Dana and Jimmy were both my students when I taught at Sacred Heart of Jesus School in Dupont,” Paddock-Kaminski said, smiling at them fondly.

The younger teachers, for their part, credited Paddock-Kaminski with inspiring them to want to become teachers and help children understand the wonders of science, the way she did.

In fact, they said, they still perform some of the same science experiments Paddock-Kaminski had conducted in their classes when they were youngsters.

“We still do ‘the lima bean,’ ” Renfer said, explaining “you put it in a Mason jar with construction paper and you can see it sprout.”

“Oh, I put mine in a plastic bag with a paper towel,” Ungureit said.

“No matter where you put the lima bean,” Paddock-Kaminski said, “you can see the roots grow down and the sprouts come up.”

Paddock-Kaminski retired this spring after 44 years as a teacher and administrator at local Catholic schools.

How is she spending her retirement so far?

“I’m getting up early and going for walks,” she said. “It’s wonderful knowing I don’t have to hurry home to take a shower and get dressed for school.”

She’ll miss her colleagues, Paddock-Kaminski said, but she expects she’ll see them now and then.

“I’m on the substitute list,” she said.

For the gift of the chairs, which are graced with “Mrs. Ungureit” and “Mr. Renfer” on the back, the way a film director’s chair would be, Paddock-Kaminski took two sturdy pieces of furniture from her home to Designs by Me in Luzerne and commissioned them to be painted with a series of school-related images she had selected.

The chairs include pictures of No. 2 pencils, Crayola crayons, penmanship samples, and simple arithmetic equations along with textbooks, a bible and advice to “Ask God to help you do it.”

“I really hope we’ll be back in school (physically ) in the fall,” said Ungureit, who teaches first grade.

She was just a few years older than her current students when Paddock-Kaminski nurtured her interest in science, she said, adding she at one time thought it would lead her to become a physician.

“I started out as a pre-med major,” she said. “Then I realized I belong with the kids.”

Renfer realized he belonged in education, too, and thanked Paddock-Kaminski on a hand-written retirement card for being ”my teacher, my mentor my principal” and “my friend.”