Tryon Elementary recently honored longtime music teacher Woody Cowan for his years of service to Polk County Schools students.

During the school’s annual fourth-and fifth-grade musical, the 2018 version titled “Music We Love Award Show,” Cowan received a Lifetime Achievement Award. Polk County Schools Superintendent Aaron Greene, art teacher Clara Rogers and former students Hannah Metcalf and Virginia Rostick shared their thoughts about Cowan, and helped present the award.

“Tonight, the lifetime achievement award goes to a person who has given his love for music and his musical abilities to many,” Rogers said. “Throughout the years, he has instilled in countless students a healthy dose of musical talent and understanding. Music has a way of magically touching the heart the way nothing else can. It can raise our spirit, it can bring us to tears, it can make us laugh and smile.

“Thanks for our dear friend Woody Cowan, so many have experienced those feelings that touch the heart. Hopefully making us more loving and kind. Tonight, we bestow upon you the Lifetime Achievement Award and sincerely thank you for all you have done and all you still do to make our hearts sing.”

– Submitted by PolkStudents.com