Ms. Dolores Hartley

For four decades, Ms. Hartley greeted every first grader at the door of Room 12 with the same words: "Welcome, reader." She turned a tired classroom into a place where struggling kids believed they belonged. She bought books with her own money, started a summer reading porch on her street, and stayed late for any child who needed a quiet place to practice. Generations of Fayetteville students learned to read because she refused to give up on a single one of them. The town named the library reading nook in her honor.