Homewood Grown returns for its 9th year

Teachers and the rest of the Homewood community will come together once again to pay tribute to Homewood teachers and the Homewood City Schools system at this year’s ninth annual Homewood Grown on Friday, April 29 at Patriot Park.

“We will honor our Teacher Impact Winners — one from each school, selected by a committee of Foundation board members and community representatives and based on nominations from students, families, administrators, and fellow teachers,” said Carlye Dudgeon, director of the Homewood City Schools Foundation.

This year’s keynote speaker will be veteran Homewood teacher Debbie Fly. Fly has been a teacher with HCS for more than 30 years, Dudgeon said.

“Debbie is a familiar face and voice to so many,” Homewood City Schools Foundation said in a statement. “Her impressive list of accolades includes the Time Magazine National Excellence Award and Homewood City Schools Teacher of the Year, among others.”

Dudgeon said several foundation board members had Fly as a teacher, which she thinks is cool.

Homewood Grown

WHERE: Patriot Park

WHEN: Friday, April 29, doors open at 5:30 p.m., dinner will be served at 6:15 p.m.

COST: Individual tickets are $150, and a table of eight is $1,200

WEB: homewoodcityschoolsfoundation.com/homewood-grown-2022

“Our grants committee chair Kristen Torres was in Debbie Fly’s first third-grade class,” Dudgeon said. “Kristen went on to teach in Homewood herself for many years.”

Individual tickets for Homewood Grown sold out in less than two hours, she said, making this the biggest Homewood Grown event the Foundation’s ever had with 640 attendees.

Dinner will be provided by Happy Catering again this year, she said. “They did an amazing job at the 2021 event, and our events team did a tasting with them to choose another delicious menu,” Dudgeon said.