A second-grader at Utsalady Elementary School dashed up to his teacher’s desk before class started Tuesday. The boy had a surprise for Diane Wood, his teacher at the school on Camano Island. It was a picture of a football player jaggedly cut from a magazine.
The teacher was happy with her gift, which was a little crumpled.
“Aaron Rodgers,” said Wood, thrilled to have one more souvenir for a wall behind her desk labeled “Packers Country.” Sure enough, the kid had brought a clipping of Rodgers, the Green Bay Packers quarterback, in his No. 12 green and gold uniform.
“She’s such a fan. And she has created some Green Bay fans amongst the students,” said Colleen Keller, principal at Utsalady Elementary.
The school is flying a 12th Man flag on these days leading up to Sunday’s Seahawks-Packers NFC Championship game at CenturyLink. But in Wood’s classroom window, there’s a big paper cut-out of a cheese wedge.
Her cheese sign says “Why not us?” Well, the Hawks are sure to win that game Sunday and go on to another Super Bowl — that’s why not. Even Wood is braced for a game the 12s can celebrate.
“I’ve told everybody it will be a miracle if we win,” said Wood, 57, who grew up on a dairy farm in Orfordville, Wisconsin, about 175 miles southwest of Green Bay.
More than a devoted “Cheesehead,” as Packers fanatics are known, Wood owns one share of stock in her team. Unique in the NFL, Green Bay Packers, Inc., has been a publicly owned nonprofit corporation since 1923. Shares are sold during rare common stock offering periods. Several years ago, during one such opportunity, her husband, Darrell Wood — a Seahawks fan — gave her one Packers share for her birthday. It cost about $200.
“It’s so endearing; of all professional sports they’re the only team owned by fans,” said Wood, who has taught in the Stanwood-Camano School District at least 20 years.
The stock doesn’t help her financially, nor does it make it easier to get Packers tickets. Along with bragging rights, she does have a stockholder’s voting rights. Framed, her single share makes an impressive wall hanging.
More noticeable is the wall behind her classroom desk. It’s decorated with green and gold banners, the team’s big “G,” an assembled Packers puzzle, bumper stickers, Packers trinkets and crafts made by students.
Wood has family photos taken during Packers games at Green Bay’s Lambeau Field and stretching back to Kingdome days in Seattle. One autographed photo shows Wood, proudly wearing her Cheesehead, during a visit by former Packers running back Ahman Green, a Seahawk before he went to Green Bay.
The kids know all about her fandom, but Wood said she doesn’t talk Packers in class. “I’ve only had one parent complain,” she said. She does remember one parent wondering about a child’s Christmas wish for a Packers jersey. “I just can’t help good taste,” she said.
Her two grown sons, who live in the Everett and Arlington areas, are Packers fans, but Wood said her husband will sport his Hawks colors Sunday. They spend NFL Sundays “watching each other’s games,” she said.
Keller, the Utsalady principal, said that even while most of the staff wears Seahawks blue this week, Wood’s passion for the Packers offers teachable moments.
“It really is a good lesson that it’s OK to stand up for what you believe in. It shows how to have fun and not be mean about it,” Keller said. “It’s all good sportsmanship.” When one boy wore a San Francisco 49ers shirt to school, Keller said she told him “It’s good to be a fan.”
A recent picture of the Utsalady staff, with most everyone in a Seahawks fan shirt, brings to mind “The Farmer in the Dell” lyric, “the cheese stands alone.” Keller said the group wouldn’t let their lone Packers fan stand alone wearing her Cheesehead for the picture. She’s right there with her co-workers.
It’s all good fun. Still, Wood’s voice turned mighty serious when I said I wouldn’t be wishing her luck Sunday.
“Well, same to you,” she said.
Julie Muhlstein: 425-339-3460; jmuhlstein@heraldnet.com.
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