Kaila White

The Republic | azcentral.com

When Prescott Valley Bradshaw Mountain High School social studies teacher George Ponte walked into the gymnasium Friday morning, he thought he was there to talk to the senior class about appropriate behavior for graduation.

Instead, one of his former students was there to make a decades-long dream come true.

Chris Ames, who had been a student of Ponte's 16 years ago, had remembered one of Ponte's greatest wishes and decided to help make it happen. While teaching about the Vietnam War, Ponte would always mention that one day, before he dies, he hoped to visit the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Wall to honor a lost friend.

Ames, 34, who is now a U.S. Marine, said he remembered that wish every time he talks about high school or meets a Vietnam veteran. So he created a GoFundMe last month to raise money to send Ponte to Washington, D.C. Former and current students, teachers, administrators and community members worked together to raise money and keep it a secret.

The big reveal

Ames woke up at 4:30 a.m. Friday to drive to Prescott Valley from Yuma dressed in his U.S. Marine Corps uniform to surprise Ponte. When Ames walked into the gym, Ponte at first seemed not to know what to think, making jokes to the students about Ames being old now. And then Ames began to speak.

"We all got to talking and we decided that we wanted to send you on that trip to see the wall," Ames told Ponte before a crowd of high school seniors and more than 100 alumni. "So we pitched in some money to the tune of, as this morning, $17,300."

Ames handed Ponte an envelope, hugging as the crowd cheered.

"It was totally unexpected," Ponte, 67, told The Arizona Republic Friday evening. "I know I’m having a positive effect ... but something like this, it really blows my mind cause it’s like, wow, I didn’t realize I had that deep of an effect on all these people I taught all these years."

A fan base built over decades

Ponte has taught for 39 years, 25 of them at Bradshaw Mountain.

"He’s just a very genuine guy," Ames said of Ponte. "He kept in contact with me, writing me letters when I was in boot camp for the Marines. You can tell he really cares about students and people in general."

Ponte is the "voice" of the Bradshaw Mountain Bears, acting as commentator at sporting events. And on the rare occasion he isn't announcing, he's in the stands or attending dances.

"I want them to know that I’m there, there’s somebody that cares enough about them not just in the classroom," Ponte said. "You may know the material – whatever is the curriculum you have to teach, you can master that – but the key to be successful, to experience what I experience, is the personal relationship with kids."

It must be working: More than 600 people contributed to the GoFundMe.

"That man is stoic, that man is strong, and for the first time in eight years I saw that man tear up," principal Kort Miner said. "To see him wipe a tear from his eye, to me, says it was reciprocated, the love was reciprocated."

Paying tribute to a friend lost to war

Ponte plans to visit the wall where he said his best friend, R.C. Cain, should be. In the draft, Cain's low number sent him to war while Ponte's high number allowed him go to college.

"He’s not on the wall. This guy was in heavy combat. When he came back, he was not the same. We tried to get him to the VA … he’s one of those victims after the war," Ponte said.

He plans to leave a bottle of Beck's beer, Cain's favorite, with a note in it.

For the rest of his week in D.C., Ponte said he plans to sightsee with his wife. He said he owes her his success in teaching to because she always supported him working long hours.

"There’s no other job I would possibly want. That’s a nice thing to realize," he said. "What would I have done different in my life? Absolutely nothing."