Patty O’Connor, retired after 34 years of teaching English/Language Arts, is currently employed as an English tutor for at-risk students. Although a Floridian by birth, she has been a Virginian by choice since 1987. In 1992, Patty started teaching Holocaust literature to her 8th grade students. A colleague informed her about Jay Ipson, who had spoken to her students about his life experiences as a Holocaust survivor. That spring of 1996, Jay Ipson spoke to her students at Manchester Middle School. Because of the students’ enthusiastic response, she invited Jay to speak again the next school year. Since the Virginia Holocaust Museum had just opened in May 1997, her students, along with her colleague’s students, were invited to be the first school group to tour the museum.