Ellington

One wouldn't necessarily connect a sixth grade teacher with the FBI, but Daniel McMullen, special agent in charge of the FBI's Jackson division, selected just such a teacher for the 2009 Director's Community Leadership Award: Cheryl Keeton Shelton.

For the past 16 years, Shelton, a language arts teacher at Byrum Middle School since 2002, has helped raise funds for two Hinds County programs that educate children on how to avoid drugs, gangs and similar activities. The programs, Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) and Gang Resistance Education and Training (G.R.E.A.T.), bring police officers into classrooms to teach children how to resist peer pressure to live productive drug and violence-free lives, according to an FBI release.

"I'm very honored," Shelton told the Jackson Free Press this morning.

Shelton, 46, has been a teacher for 25 years. As one of her class projects, her sixth graders prepare goodie boxes for soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan. This act of kindness encourages her students to consider others instead of themselves, Shelton said.

In the past five years, the "military buddies" program has grown from one box to 66 boxes sent every holiday, including Christmas, Easter, Thanksgiving and Valentine's Day. The goodie boxes contain letters, cards and drawings from the students, and candy, crackers, peanuts, socks, foot powder, books, gum and other non-perishable items. The students have received numerous thank-you notes from soldiers and Shelton reads each of them aloud.

"Most people give money," Shelton said. "I don't have the money, but I have the time," she said of the program, which receives support from local businesses and individuals, especially to cover postage costs, she said. She also said that she doesn't force any student to participate. If parents have objections, Shelton gives those students alternative activities. But it's not about supporting war, she emphasized. "I want my students to know there are people making sacrifices," she says, and the boxes support the soldiers making sacrifices.

Last February, the U.S. Army presented Shelton and 120 Byram Middle School sixth graders with Freedom Team Salute commendations, and Gov. Haley Barbour proclaimed Feb. 13 to be Byram Middle School and Military Buddies Day.

Shelton, born in Arkansas, has been a Mississippian since she was 9 months old, graduating from Cleveland High School in 1981. A 1984 graduate of Mississippi College with a bachelor's degree in education, and a 2009 grad of the FBI's Citizens' Academy, Shelton received her FBI award Friday, Dec. 11. She and her husband of 25 years, Tim, reside in Pearl.

To contribute to the military buddy boxes, contact the Byrum Middle School at 601-372-4597.