KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (WATE) — An English Language Learning teacher at Lonsdale Elementary was surprised on Friday to be named as the winner of a $24,000 giveaway during Teacher Appreciation Week.

During a school assembly Friday morning, Lonsdale Elementary gathered and recited their daily affirmations, before Adam Wilson, broker and owner of Adam Wilson Realty, was called up to announce the winner.

This is the third year that Adam Wilson Realty has given the $24,000 giveaway to a teacher to help pay their mortgage or rent for a year. Wilson explained for teachers who may not have a mortgage or rent to pay, it can also be used to pay debt, and if they don’t have debt, for whatever brings them joy.

This year, English Language Learning teacher Monique Fleming was the recipient of the $24,000 prize. She said she has worked in education for around 14 years, starting out as a bus driver, and she has been a teacher for four years. Fleming works with students whose first language is not English. When asked how she felt after finding out she won, she said she was feeling “all the things.”

“Excited and happy, relieved a lot, super excited, grateful,” Fleming said.

She explained she wasn’t excited to know the money would be going to a Lonsdale teacher, but she didn’t expect to win.

“I was just so excited that it was Lonsdale. I was already crying like I don’t know who it was but I was already so emotional about it,” she said. “I just felt like I was in a dream daze world like I was like ‘what? No, no’. All I kept saying, ‘Are you sure? Are you sure?’ Like it was a shock. “

Since 2016, Wilson, a former educator, has been working to give back to Knox County Schools.

“I taught from 2010 to 2015 at Central High School in Karns High School and so knowing living the lifestyle of a teacher and making ends meet and knowing also to what it means to make a difference,” Wilson said. “When I was thinking about how can I change a teacher’s life, I knew taking care of their rented mortgage would just significantly impact that life.”

He said when he first started in 2016, he catered meals to go back and see his friends at Central and Karns high schools, but it grew from there, especially since 2020 when the Covid-19 pandemic hit. What was originally catering meals at two schools grew to 10, to now an average of 60 to 70 schools per year. The pandemic also spurred Wilson to the giveaway as a way to give hope back to teachers.

“That was really out of Covid, and knowing the level of frustration, the level of unknown, just it became really difficult, and so hope is a powerful thing. And so to give people something to look forward to, to genuinely appreciate them and to say you are professional and I respect you, [as] someone who’s no longer in the classroom, but I’m rooting for you. That’s, again, where we wanted to build them up and give them something to look forward to.” Wilson said.

Since he started, he’s given more than $475,000 to Knox County Schools, and he’s working to encourage others to give back as well. He encouraged everyone to go to their schools and see what they need or to visit the Knox County Schools Partners in Education Foundation’s website, which has lists of what each school needs. Wilson is the president of the partners in education foundation, and he said he just wants to help teachers and remind them how crucial their role is.

“I just hope the teachers know how important they are. They’re our last and best hope in these schools for these communities. And so we are all in this together and we will overcome,” Wilson said.