Middle school teacher wins award

MARLBORO - Stacy Schiller, a Marlboro Middle School social studies teacher, is one of eight recipients in New Jersey of the 2007 Honey and Maurice Axelrod Award which recognizes outstanding educational and community leaders in the state who lead the fight against bias, prejudice and discrimination through education about the Holocaust and genocide.

The Axelrod family, through a contribution to the Anti-Defamation League of New Jersey, provides a financial award to the recipients to continue their efforts. In its third decade, the partnership of the Axelrod family, the Anti-Defamation League of New Jersey and the New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Educa-tion makes this yearly event possible, according to a press release.

This past year, Schiller enhanced her Holocaust curriculum by including a unit of study on the ongoing genocide occurring in Darfur, located in the western region of the Sudan, Africa. Schiller stimulated her students' interest and awareness to such a degree that a student-initiated Darfur Club was started at the school, with Schiller as its adviser.

To date, the club has raised more than $1,000 that is being donated to nonprofit organizations such as Help Darfur Now and Doctors Without Borders. When school begins in September, club members hope to continue to raise the awareness of their peers as well as the Marlboro community at large about the situation in Darfur.