Mrs. Ross, Activities Director at Aliso Niguel High School, has been awarded the Bob Burton Spirit Award. After one and a half years with her own program, Mrs. Ross is already making history for herself and for Aliso Niguel.
The Bob Burton Spirit Award is named after Bob Burton, a lifetime activity director from Fallbrook High School. In addition to being known as “Mr. Energy,” he wrote a book called “Spirit Works…turn it on” and published it in 1987.
Since he was such an impactful person, they named the award after him in order to demonstrate recipients’ impact on their schools. The Bob Burton Spirit Award is given to outstanding directors that follow in his footsteps.
On Jan. 8, Mrs. Ross was surprised by many faculty members when they awarded her with a banner accompanied by flowers. These faculty members included Dr. Mahindrakar, Mrs. Wegner, Mrs. Hosseini, Mr. Brosamer, Mr. Mocnik, Mr. Mashburn and Mr.Nedler.
Mr. Nedler is on the California Association of Directors of Activities council and used to be a teacher at Aliso Niguel and an interim Activities Director in 2023.
He sits on the Area Council for San Bernardino, Orange and Riverside, which is made up of over 1100 high schools and middle schools.
When the council was nominating recipients for the Bob Burton Spirit Award, Mr. Nedler nominated Mrs. Ross. Once the voting was finished, it was clear that Mrs. Ross won by a landslide.
“You got to be really special to get the Bob Burton Award…I knew your culture when I came on board for a semester two years ago, and I’ve seen your culture change dramatically. A big 180…The whole shift comes about, truly, when you have an activities director who buys into the school, and most of all, buys into her kids,” says Nedler.
Since Area F is the biggest area of CADA, Mrs. Ross receiving this award is a very big deal. She has been noticed statewide for her amazing accomplishments over the year and half that she has had her own program at Aliso Niguel.
“I am honored to have even been nominated amongst the many amazing activities directors in our area and in the state and humbled to have been selected as this year’s recipient. Words can’t possibly express my gratitude to my admin team and ASB kids at Aliso that have supported me through it all and our amazing teachers, staff and students that welcomed me in just last year as their new Activities Director. It’s been an incredible year and a half so far at Aliso, I absolutely love it here and love what I get to do each and every day, and I know my journey here is only the beginning.”
Earning this award is a huge deal not only for Mrs. Ross but for the history of Aliso Niguel as well. In addition to Mrs. Ross getting the Bob Burton Spirit Award, the Associated Student Body (ASB) gained an award for being the Student Section of the Season by Orange County Student Sections.
“There’s a lot of wining going on and our campus benefits from it,” says Dr. Mahindrakar.
This first semester of the 2024-2025 school year has been monumental for Aliso Niguel history, and Mrs. Ross and the ASB are ready to keep it up this semester.
