Atlanta BookPALS would like to bid a heartfelt farewell to Mr. Dan Biggers of Rome, Georgia who has been a member of the BookPALS Program since 2001!
Dan retired as Dean of Students at Berry College in Rome, Georgia just as his acting career was taking off. He was a regular on In The Heat of the Night, playing the character of Dr. Frank Robb. He has appeared in such productions as Murder in Coweta County, The Slugger's Wife, Door to Door, Dream West, Home Fires Burning, Elizabethtown, and many others. Dan received a Lifetime Achievement Award from AFTRA in 2003.
(To see more regarding Dan's credits, please visit www.IMDb.com.)
I wanted to share the following very touching comments submitted to me by Dan in April of 2002:
"I have intended almost weekly to give you my report of the happiness that my classes of second and fifth-graders at Elm Street Elementary bring me! Wonderful… Would not have missed the experience for the world. I have been undergoing radiation treatments for over a month now and have been able to schedule the daily treatments around my scheduled BOOKPALS time. Man, you just open the door and LOVE rushes out to envelop you! Every week has made the experience even more fantastic. The response from each class has been enough to keep me going through what might have been a really difficult period. We all know work is not, at the moment, what it has been. But since December, I would not have been able to have taken work anyway. I have been having radiation treatments since January and never missed one of my days at school. My fifth-grade teachers and I shared the experience with my kids and they have been super and I think they learned a lot. But my second-graders, oh, they make each week a joy because I know there will be one day with them and they are reading. Many of our second-graders did not have command of English when we started and I am almost certain ALL are reading now. God willing and the creek don’t rise… I will volunteer for the same school next year!"
We wish the very best in life to Dan and Edna (his wife of 50 years!) and their wonderful family. Thank you, Dan, for all of your hard work and dedication to the kids over the years!
Cindy Tinius
Atlanta BookPALS Coordinator
BookPALS
http://www.bookpals.net/content/article.php?story=2007031912131780