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3 Hillsborough Teachers Win A Day Of Pampering

Tribune photo by JULIE BUSCH

Catherine Davis (center) talks with Central Nails Inc. salon owner Nancy McFarlin (left) as Mary Donovan (right) stylist with Amici's Salon & Spa styles Davis' hair in St. Petersburg Monday.

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By KEITH MORELLI | The Tampa Tribune

Published: September 8, 2008

ST. PETERSBURG - Dawn Firestine patiently waited as cameras clicked, hairdressers teased and a tailor stitched. A few feet away stood a photo set with a seamless white background, plastic props, including a silver globe, and a couple of sparkling vases filled with red delicious and green Granny Smith apples.

"I love this," said Firestine, 47, a fifth-year teacher at Lopez Elementary who is making education her second career. "But I'm so far out of my element, I'm a little nervous."

She and two other Hillsborough County teachers, Katie Bullock of Lowry Elementary and Catherine Davis from Shaw Elementary, were nominated by peers, students, family and parents for the special pampering.

Sponsored by Jones New York in the Classroom, the makeover has been given to teachers for the past four years. The three teachers from Tampa were among 21 educators from seven American cities being treated today, said Stephanie McInerney, a spokeswoman for the clothing manufacturer Jones New York.

"Teachers contribute so much to the classroom," she said, "we wanted to contribute something to them."

The teachers all got to spend $1,000 on clothes at Macy's last week, including any alterations if needed. Today, it was hair and makeup, finishing with professionally taken portraits.

The teachers will be featured in a Jones New York in the Classroom package in Real Simple magazine. They also will be given some needed teaching materials by the nonprofit organization Adopt-a-Classroom, said charity founder James Rosenberg, who was at the makeover this morning.

"The average teacher donates about $1,200 a year out of their own pockets for classroom supplies, more now with the budget cuts," he said.

The contest fielded nominations for several hundred teachers across the nation, and Jones New York picked the winners at the end of the previous school year.

Bullock, 29, has been teaching for four years. The Chicago area native said she found out that she won the contest in June.

"This is very exciting," she said. "I was nominated by the parents of students in my classroom, and that makes me feel good."

Davis, 51, has been teaching for 15 years, the past 10 in Tampa. Before that, she taught in Santa Fe, N.M., her hometown. She found out this summer that she won and that her son, who works in the school where she teaches, nominated her.

"He wrote an essay," she said. "I don't know what it said."

As makeover artists scurried about at 150 Studio South near downtown St. Petersburg this morning, the teachers enjoyed being the centers of attention.

Firestine said she "always wanted to teach," even though her first career was in insurance. With children grown, she went back to school and ended up in the classroom.

"Right now," she said, "I'm looking at my watch, saying, 'OK, my kids are doing this right now; now they're doing that.' "

Reporter Keith Morelli can be reached at (813) 259-7760 or kmorelli@tampatrib.com.

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