When two student-athletes were struggling in her English class, then-Sweetwater High School teacher Kristina Josafat brokered a deal: finish the football season, earn an A or B in her class and she would personally purchase a letterman jacket for them.
The two students held up their end of the bargain, and as promised, Josafat spent about $300 each on two letterman jackets for the students.
“It meant the world to me,” said former Sweetwater student, Andrew Wright, now 22 years old, was one of the first recipients. “Because I didn’t have someone at home that was able to give me something to fight for or something that I really wanted. It gave me a way to earn it the right way, it was more of a responsibility but at the same time it was a gift.”
Wright, who still has the jacket said he was hovering around a C in Josafat’s class before making the deal, at the end of the year, he raised his grade to an A.
When she gave the students their jackets, she filmed them putting it on and with their permission posted the video on Facebook. She said there was a lot of positive reactions about her gesture.
“People (on Facebook) started saying things like, ‘Let me know if you do this again’,” she said. “And I really didn’t know what again was going to be, I was just trying to motivate a couple of teenagers that were in my class.”
However, that day five years ago was the start of a new program called Project Letterman, a yearly project that awards Sweetwater High School students a letterman jacket. She spearheads the project with friend and current Sweetwater High School teacher Paul Wapnowski.
In its first official year, the project awarded 10 jackets. Each year the program has grown and has awarded 78 jackets to date.
Josafat no longer purchases the jackets for the students – since she said she is on a teacher’s salary.
Instead, she said, it’s become a community effort with year-around fundraisers and donations from the Sweetwater community. She said people around the world — some Sweetwater alumni- contribute money to the SUHI Foundation for the project.
SUHI Foundation board member Kile Morgan has yearly offered to match any donation up to $3,000.
Josafat said many of the students at Sweetwater High School come from low-income households, so Project Letterman helps relieve the financial burden of affording a letterman jacket to students who have earned it.
Project Letterman has gained attention throughout the Sweetwater Union High School District that Josafat said other schools have approached her asking how to get something similar started on their campus.
“After seeing how happy I was— and not only me she gave someone else an opportunity to earn a letterman also—so there was two people in the very first process that got her mind going and got thinking that there are other people that deserve something that nobody else could give them.”
To apply for Project Letterman or to donate to the cause, visit www.thesuhifoundation.org.
Ms. Josafat is indeed a hero – not simply for purchasing the Lettermans jackets but rathering, thru her kind heart and generosity sending the message, THE STUDENTS OF SUHI MATTER!
The community of the SUHSD is BLESSED to have such caring employees – so many of them serving as positive role models our students will long remember!