Envision Credit Union gives back to teachers with 70 Cruises for 70 teachers initiative

Envision Credit Union originally started as the Leon County Teachers Credit Union in 1954 and was ran by teachers out of Leon High School. Now, the company is celebrating 70 years of service by giving back to local educators.

Kicking off its new initiative, "70 Cruises for 70 Teachers," the company plans to hand out free tickets for the Royal Caribbean cruise line. Out of the 70 teachers selected, five of the winners will be surprised in their classrooms with the announcement.

The first was made Friday with Allison Agbasoga, an English teacher at Leon High, who has been teaching for eight years, and at Leon for one.

"It's pretty nostalgic to see that one of the most loved teachers in the Leon County area is at Leon High," said Kelli Walter, vice president of community development with Envision. "It is super cool that it happens to be a teacher at Leon, in the very same halls where our credit union was started by 10 teachers that taught here 70 years ago."

"She had such an incredible outpouring of nominations from students, past students, parents, her colleagues and family members, she received up to 119 nominations, it was incredible."

Leon High students, faculty, and Leon County School District personnel filled her classroom wearing floral leis and prepared themselves to record the teacher's surprise before she entered the room.

"I feel like every single day is a day to really influence the next and upcoming generation and I feel like if we're able to push them through the next day and to be better in life, that's just the biggest thing," Agbasoga told the Tallahassee Democrat after the announcement. "It makes me want to cry, and I don't mean to get emotional, but they are really incredible kids."

Walter said the purpose of having the initiative be nomination based was to allow the community to be involved.

"No pun intended, but we wanted to make a big splash. We wanted our community to know that we really do love our educators," Walter said. "We also wanted to give the community an opportunity to participate, so by doing a nomination participation it allows the community and the recipients of the incredible teaching from those teachers to be able to speak up."

The cruise package covers two tickets, port fees and food. Agbasoga plans to take her fiancé along with her. She graduates from Florida State University with her master's degree in educational leadership in August and said she may take the cruise then to celebrate.

The full list of winners will be posted on the company's website Monday during teacher appreciation week.

Alaijah Brown covers children & families for the Tallahassee Democrat. She can be reached at ABrown1@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Envision Credit Union is giving 70 free cruises for educators