Phoenix (STN) – Next month, two of the best college football teams in the country will meet at the Fiesta Bowl with a trip to the National Championship on the line. But during the final episode of ‘It Happens at STN’ of 2025, one of the evening’s most hopeful conversations focused on an impact that reaches far beyond the gridiron.
As part of a panel discussion, the Fiesta Sports Foundation highlighted the impact of its Wishes for Teachers program, which awarded more than $1.5 million to over 500 Arizona educators in the past year alone.
Kristina Chumpol, chief impact officer for the Fiesta Sports Foundation, said the program was intentionally designed to trust the people who know their classrooms best.
“The Wishes for Teachers program is really all about putting the power back into the teacher’s hands,” she told the audience. “They know their students the best. They know their classrooms the best.”
Now in its 10th year, the program has delivered nearly $10 million directly into Arizona classrooms. Those dollars have translated into everything from updated technology to classroom libraries and basic supplies. But the impact, Chumpol emphasized, goes beyond materials.
WATCH: Fiesta Sports Foundation grants ‘Wishes for Teachers’
“It’s about celebrating our teachers, wrapping our arms around them, showing them they are seen, they are valued, they are heard, and they are appreciated,” she said.
The emotional center of the conversation came from Erin Henderson, a longtime English teacher at Alhambra High School and a former Wishes for Teachers recipient.
Henderson described the moment she learned her wish had been granted as “exhilarating,” explaining that the funding allowed her to dramatically expand her classroom library.
“I was able to purchase so many books for my students,” she said. “They had access to a whole new world through those books.”
For Henderson, teaching has never been just a job.
“If I’m ever worried about our future, I look in my classroom,” she said. “My students are going to change the world. They inspire me every day.”
As the conversation turned to action, Chumpol encouraged leaders in the room to support teachers in both meaningful and everyday ways.
“Writing a note, volunteering, helping with a bulletin board. Little things go a really long way,” she said.
Henderson echoed that call with a personal appeal.
“Check on your teachers,” she said. “It means more to us than anyone will ever know.”
