Florence Conlon wore a UFT Strides T-shirt over her pink sweater, and a pink bandanna was wrapped around her neck — wise choices for a chilly overcast day at Orchard Beach in the Bronx. But the most important accessory Conlon wore was the sash with one word printed on it: "Survivor."

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.

Tanya Sumner, a teacher of English language learners at PS 204 in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, was just 36 years old in 2017 when she unexpectedly passed out behind the wheel of her car. Sumner, the mother of a 5-year-old girl and a 7-month-old boy, woke up in the hospital to a devastating diagnosis: Stage 4 metastatic breast cancer, which had already spread to her spine and hips.

Harlem Week is special for Charity Phalo-Davis. A teacher at the Bronx School for Law, Government and Justice in Morrisania, she strolled through the yard at PS 175 in Harlem with her husband, Quincy, and their 2-year-old son during the event’s Children’s Festival on Aug. 18.

The line stretched around PS 160 in Jamaica, Queens, and down the block at the UFT’s First Book giveaway on June 1. The incentive: 40,000 free books.

For many people, civics is synonymous with social studies. But the UFT's teacher working group on civics education feel strongly that the lessons of civics are applicable in every classroom.

More than 2,000 middle and high schoolers from New York City public schools went to the UFT’s prom boutique on May 10-11 at the union’s Bronx borough office where they picked out dresses, shoes, jewelry and accessories for their proms and graduations – and took them home for free.

The UFT presented $5,000 Albert Shanker Scholarships to 180 seniors from public high schools throughout the city and also honored eight graduate students on May 14 at a reception and ceremony in Shanker Hall at union headquarters in Manhattan. The ceremony marked the 50th anniversary of the annual $1 million scholarship awards celebration.

The UFT’s sixth annual 5K run/walk took educators and students from the smartboard to the boardwalk on May 11, as participants laced up their sneakers for a jaunt along the shore at Coney Island.

At the annual showcase designed to promote the accomplishments of the newly renamed UFT United Community Schools Initiative, the spotlight was on PS/IS 184 in Brownsville, Brooklyn.