Eastbluff dedicates bench to former teacher Tift

Eastbluff Elementary School dedicated a new bench area Thursday afternoon to former teacher Candace Tift, who died of injuries sustained in a bicycling accident in August 2006.

Students, teachers and district administrators gathered outside the school to commemorate the opening of the seating area, which features two benches and a plaque bearing Tift’s name. Eastbluff parents raised all the funds for the project, with the PTA and a fathers group known as E-Dads raising more than $6,000.

Tift, who died at age 31, taught the fourth and fifth grades. After the ceremony, dozens of students gathered to read the plaque.

The plaque contained Tift’s birth and death dates and a single sentence about her: “She shared her love and passion for education with everyone she met.”

— Michael Miller