The Army recruiting slogan “Be All That You Can Be” is one of Donna Drum-Thomas’ favorite sayings.

The Robbins Elementary School reading teacher repeats it frequently. She wants her students to live it.

A colleague describes her as someone who “gives kids a wonderful gift every day — the love of reading.”

The children like her. When they leave class every day, she shakes hands with each, one at a time. If she misses any, they come back and remind her.

Fellow teachers and students alike aren’t surprised that Thomas is the Moore County Schools Teacher of the Year.

Thomas has taught for 26 years. She relies on what she says is a magical combination of humor, lots of hands-on attention and her instinct that children can be taught to use what they already know to help them learn even more.

“I believe in the inherent worth of each child and recognize that each is an individual having a unique personality, learning style, and level of maturity,” says Thomas, who has been a Reading Recovery and Early Literacy teacher at Robbins Elementary for five years. “I’ve always been hands-on.”

Thomas is unassuming. After being selected Teacher of the Year at her school, she had to write something about herself on the application for the countywide award.

She wrote that she had never received any formal awards during her teaching career. But she recalled a special “thank you” from a former student and his parents last year.

They sent her a basket of flowers and a card on the last day before Christmas vacation. The card read, “Every time we listen to Chris, read we think of you! Thank you for teaching our son to read.”

“When I read the card, I had chill bumps,” Thomas wrote.

She has the card on a special page in her professional scrapbook.

A native of Pittsburgh, Thomas grew up in a middle-class family with a sister and two younger brothers. She learned at an early age to appreciate reading and language. Her mother majored in English in college but did not work outside the home. Her father, Bob Drum, was a sportswriter for CBS television.

“There was a lot of conversation and discussion around our table at night,” Thomas says. “My dad made certain we used the language correctly.”

Her mother lives in Pinehurst, and her sister, Denise Baker, teaches at Sandhills Community College.

Thomas and her husband, Steve, live in Sanford. She has a son, who is 23, and Steve has two grown daughters, all from previous marriages. They have three grandchildren.

Thomas began her teaching career in Georgia after graduating from Georgia Southern University in 1974. After several years there, she moved to Ohio to teach at a well-funded private girls’ school where expectations were high.

She came to Moore County in 1987 and was an eighth-grade teacher at Aberdeen Middle School for four years. She went back to Ohio in 1991, this time to teach at an inner city school in Cleveland.

Thomas landed back in Moore County in 1995 at Robbins Elementary.

One of the things that attracted Thomas to the Reading Recovery program was its use of strategies to teach children to use what they already know to help them learn more. She underwent a rigorous, yearlong training program.

The locally funded program is designed to help elementary students who are having difficulty reading. It is offered in conjunction with a small-group reading program called Early Literacy, in kindergarten through third grade.

Robbins Elementary has a high percentage of low-income students receiving free and reduced-price lunches. The school also has the highest percentage of any school in the county of students whose primary language is not English.

But Thomas finds that the parents of these children are vitally involved in school and highly appreciative of suggestions from teachers on doing things to help their children succeed.

Thomas believes in being child-centered in her teaching. Reading recovery reinforced that.

“My role as a teacher is to provide an effective program of academic skills, which develop students’ ability to think independently, critically, and logically, in order to compete in this changing world,” Thomas says.

Thomas says she has benefited greatly from the contributions from some of her colleagues. Among them are Ann Yoder, a former Chapter I reading teacher and assistant principal who is now the director of early grades for the school system, and fellow Reading Recovery teacher Lisa Dunlap of Westmoore Elementary School.

Thomas and Dunlap crosscheck their students’ progress.

When Thomas was named Teacher of the Year at her school, she received a $200 cash prize and the chance to compete for the countywide award.

A panel of three judges — teachers of the year in Harnett, Lee and Montgomery counties — selected Thomas for the honor of Moore County Teacher of the Year.

She received her award in April at the annual Teacher of the Year banquet at the Carolina Hotel. She received a $400 cash prize

She is spending the money on materials and supplies for her classes and other professional activities.

And Thomas recently received word of another professional honor.

She’s been asked to serve as an independent consultant for Rigby Education, a publishing company that is sending her to Orlando, Fla., for three days of training this summer.

Thomas has written a children’s book entitled “Hats” that Rigby may be interested in publishing.

Next year, Thomas plans to start work toward completing the very rigorous National Certification

While Thomas loves teaching, she also relishes the role of “grandmother” to her three step-grandchildren. One is now a first grader, and two are infants.

“My gifts to them are always books,” Thomas said. At first, their mothers found it unusual that “Grandma” was giving books to babies instead of cuddly toy animals, she says.