Name: PIE Annual Luncheon
Start: 2024-06-11T12:00:00-04:00
Location: Riverfront Convention Center

More than 550 educators, business leaders, community members, and elected officials will fill the Riverfront Convention Center of Craven County on Tuesday, June 11, 2024, for the PIE Annual Luncheon. This annual event supports and recognizes the educators in Craven County Schools. PIE awarded over $400,000 through various grants and programs during the 2023-24 school year.
Debra Hurst, President of Partners In Education, announced the luncheon will host nationally renowned speaker, educator, and bestselling author of “Zen and the Art of Public School Teaching,” John Perricone, as the keynote speaker.
Doors open at 11:30 am for seating, with the event beginning at Noon. Tickets are $35 per person. The Flame is the caterer. John Bircher, an attorney with Davis Hartman Wright and West Craven High alum, will emcee. This event is open to the public. Tickets can be purchased from the PIE Ambassadors or at CravenPartners.com. We suggest you purchase your tickets early because this will surely be another sell-out event.
Ms. Hurst explains, “The luncheon is an excellent opportunity for our community to support our public school educators. The event finances PIE Grants, grants awarded to teachers for creative and innovative projects in Craven County Schools’ classrooms that fund materials for technology, science, music, and art projects, along with supplies and books for our students. I’m pleased to announce that PIE awarded over $35,000 in PIE Grants during the 2023-24 school year.”
Brandy Popp, Chair of the Fund-Raising Committee, said she is thrilled to welcome Mr. Perricone. Ms. Popp explained, “This year the theme is Zen-like in keeping with the title of Mr. Perricone’s book. Mr. Perricone has spoken in all 50 states, abroad, and on June 11th, in Craven County! We are so pleased to have him join us!”
Mr. Perricone was a Health Educator and Psychology teacher in the Maine-Endwell School District in upstate N.Y. for 31 years. His love and passion for teaching have made him the recipient of local, state, and national “Excellence in Teaching” awards.
He has been lauded across the country for his work in inviting his audiences to reflect upon their personal philosophies of life and the role that that philosophy plays in shaping their work ethic and the profundity of their life’s calling.
After 48 years of training, Mr. Perricone has received his 7th-degree blackbelt -- the highest rank that his teacher, world-renowned karate master Hidy Ochiai (Hy-dee O-chee-I) has ever awarded in his 56 years of teaching.
He sings with the Barbershop Harmony Society and has performed throughout the country in a quartet known as the Troubadours. Mr. Perricone says, “The only thing that exceeds my zest for my profession and hobbies are the love of my wife Vicki and my daughters Loren and Hannah.”