Teacher Union Day always melds a celebration of the founding members who built the UFT with recognition of the members today who are leading the union and our schools into the future.

But the event this year included surprise visits from two political leaders who can help the union create a brighter future for the schools.

Mayor-elect Bill de Blasio and City Comptroller-elect Scott Stringer came midway through the morning program to speak to the more than 1,300 UFT members, friends and family gathered in an ornate ballroom of the Waldorf Astoria. The event was on Nov. 3, two days before both secured their seats in the general election.

President Michael Mulgrew, introducing de Blasio, noted that after 12 years of Mayor Bloomberg, the union faces a dual challenge: to rebuild the New York City school system and, in so doing, to show the rest of the country what a successful public school system looks like.

The only way to meet this challenge “is with a real partner, a partner who listens, who understands what a school should be, who understands the Department of Education’s job is to support and help schools, not to attack them,” Mulgrew said. “Bill de Blasio will show the rest of this country what real government and education should be about.”

De Blasio told the crowd that “teachers are today’s heroes, and we are going to support them and we are going to uplift them and with them together we will build the best school system in the country.”

It was a fitting tribute to UFT members on a day when, as Mulgrew said, “we’re celebrating the people who make our school system work, the people who go above and beyond, the people who lead.”

The day’s highest honor, the Charles Cogen Award, went to UFT Treasurer Mel Aaronson, who helped coordinate the strike on Nov. 7, 1960, that Teacher Union Day commemorates. He was joined on stage by UFT founding members Abe Levine and George Altomare and his fellow retirement system trustees, Mona Romain and Sandra March.

Aaronson led the attentive crowd through a brief history of the union and the current battle to protect pensions. Remember, “even what the city says is ‘their fund’ is really my deferred wages,” he said to applause.

David Hickey, the UFT general manager and chief financial officer, won the Jules Kolodny Award, which he said he accepted “on behalf of all those passionate and dedicated people who work tirelessly behind the scenes.”

Steve Gappelberg, a special representative in the pension department, was honored with the David Wittes Award. He recognized the efforts of others who work on members’ retirement issues: “Together we do what we’re supposed to do as a union, which is to make life better for our members.”

Lorna Baptiste, the assistant director of the UFT Welfare Fund, accepted the Audrey Chasen Award, saying, “This award should not be about me. It should be about our staff, the UFT Welfare Fund family.”

It was a theme of the day — that no one at the UFT goes it alone. Supporting each member is a foundation built by others who came before and made stronger by those working alongside us now.

District 75 teacher Joanne Higgins said she comes to the event for precisely that sense of unity. “As a teacher, I sometimes feel like I’m by myself,” said Higgins, who teaches at P993 in Floral Park, Queens. “This shows me I’m supported.”

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Miller Photography

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Miller Photography