Terri-Anne Wilson
Teacher – Holly Elementary – Vancouver, BC

Terri-Anne Wilson was raised in Kamploops, a small town in the interior of British Columbia. Both her mother and grandmother had been teachers. So, it was no surprise to those who knew her, that at the tender age of six, she wrote her first book, and in it said "When I grow up, I am going to be a teacher." Twenty years later, she found herself teaching at Holly Elementary. Holly was an inner city school with a reputation for having an overwhelming amount of ‘at-risk’ kids, and Terri-Anne’s grade one class was no exception. It wasn’t long before Terri-Anne became friends with another teacher at the school by the name of Terry Symonds. It was he who first introduced her to a very special Cambodian teacher by the name of Monn Sokchea, who was trying to make a difference in the lives of children halfway across the world. His situation paralleled Terri-Anne’s so substantially that she began to think of ways she could help both the victimized children of Pol Pot’s legacy and the children she faced in her classroom on a daily basis. Eventually, a plan began to materialize.