The VFW (Veterans of Foreign Wars) Post 9949 in Peachtree City named Paula Nellessen, a fifth grade teacher at Huddleston Elementary, the first place recipient of the post-level Smart/Maher VFW National Citizenship Education Teacher Award. 
The award is presented to teachers in three categories (grades K-5, 6-8, and 9-12) at the post, state and national levels. As a grade K-5 first place post-level winner, Nellessen advanced to the District 6 competition where she took second place.
The Smart/Maher VFW National Citizenship Education Teacher Award recognizes teachers who teach citizenship topics regularly, and promote America’s history and traditions effectively. Examples include promoting civic responsibility, flag etiquette, and patriotism. Teachers are evaluated on the extent to which they encourage and model good citizenship and community involvement, the amount of innovation they use in the classroom, use of resources to fund, facilitate and provide materials for their classrooms, and their passion about the teaching profession.
