Teachers and students at PS/IS 116 in Jamaica, Queens, worked together to beautify the school's girls' bathroom.

Andy Pallotta doesn’t walk away from challenges.

From his days as the chapter leader at PS 32 in the Bronx to his current role as president of the UFT’s state affiliate, New York State United Teachers, Pallotta has continued to take on whatever obstacles he’s faced.

There was a powerful confluence of causes on Oct. 20 as more than 1,700 UFT members came together on Teacher Union Day to celebrate union activism past and present after many of them participated in the Making Strides Against Breast Cancer walk.

The UFT’s Brooklyn borough office — and everyone inside — was decked out in pink on Oct. 2 for its fourth annual Making Strides Shine and Dine event. The festive program is a way to thank the schools that raised more than $1,000 apiece for the American Cancer Society the previous year as part of the union’s Making Strides Against Breast Cancer campaign.

The 33rd annual UFT and DOE School Counselor Recognition Day Awards Ceremony on May 31 at the UFT’s Brooklyn borough office recognized the contributions of 26 school counselors from all around the city.

UFT members Connor Valvo, a teacher at Kingsborough Early College Secondary School, and Janu Williams, a school counselor at the HS for Sports Management, both in Brooklyn, were honored by the city DOE in June for providing lifesaving assistance to colleague Elizabeth Kullman last November.

Thirty-two student projects were honored May 30 at the 13th annual Better Speech and Hearing Month Celebration at UFT headquarters in Manhattan, where about 200 students, parents and speech and hearing providers gathered in Shanker Hall for a ceremony and dinner.

"You are the best," schools Chancellor Richard Carranza told 17 Big Apple Award winners at the seventh annual awards ceremony at the city Department of Education headquarters in Manhattan on June 11. In addition to their Big Apple honors, the 17 educators will form the Chancellor’s Teacher Advisory Group.

The second annual Daniel Dromm Scholarship Brunch at UFT headquarters in Manhattan on June 1 kicked off Pride Month, honored members of the LGBTQ community past and present and honored five high school seniors with $1,000 scholarships for being exemplary students and LGBTQ student activists.

“You have different skills, certification and education, but you all have the ability to stand up in the middle of chaos — no matter how crazy it gets — and say, ‘This person matters,’” Anne Goldman, the head of the Federation of Nurses/UFT and the UFT vice president for non-DOE members, told the nurses attending the union’s sixth annual Nurse Recognition Day on April 30.