(STURGIS) – It was a special night Lesley Starkey on Thursday.

The Sturgis Area Community Foundation presented Starkey with the 2024 John E. Oster Award For Excellence In Teaching, during the Foundation’s Annual Meeting at the Sturges-Young Center For The Arts. Sturgis Superintendent Dr. Art Ebert introduced Starkey to those in attendance.

Starkey is a Title 1 Special Education teacher at Congress School, and also serves as the Varsity Girls Track Coach. She shared that her love for helping children started while she was a student at Albion High School, and continued while she attended the University of Michigan. LINKC.

Starkey came to Sturgis after graduating from college in 2007.

Starkey was nominated by her peers and then reviewed by an independent award committee made up of community members and Sturgis Public Schools leadership. She is the 43rd recipient of the Oster Award, named after former Sturgis attorney John Oster.