Occasions

Engagement
Clay Muench and Angelica Alvarez
What do you get when you take 20 children and add true love and a ring?

An engagement.

Clay Muench proposed to third-grade Braden River Elementary School teacher Angelica Alvarez March 14, at the school.

Alvarez’s students, along with Principal Hayley Rio and fellow Braden River staff members, kept the surprise a secret.

Muench, a teacher in Sarasota County, had the week off because of spring break and met Alvarez for lunch several times that week. That Friday, he planned to join her class for a pizza party and a game of kickball.

Rio called Alvarez to the office, but, minutes later, Alvarez returned to her classroom to find her students lined against the wall with their backs facing her. Rio and fellow teachers stood filming the scene, and Muench began to share about the couple’s one-and-a-half years together.

“He grabbed my hand and then I kind of knew,” Alvarez says.

On the count of three, Alvarez’s students turned around and shouted, “Will you marry me?” and held signs Muench had made.

“It was the best day ever,” Alvarez says. “It was very, very special. The fact that he included my other love in life — my teaching and my students — it was a very thoughtful proposal.”

The couple have set a wedding date of Nov. 22.

Obituary
Helen Hutchings
Surrounded by loved ones, Creekwood’s Helen Hutchings celebrated her 95th birthday March 26, with a birthday lunch and chocolate cake at one of her favorite restaurants, Chickadee’s Eatery.

Ms. Hutchings, a Creekwood resident, died March 31.

Born March 25, 1919, in Woodland, Calif., Ms. Hutchings moved to the area in 1990.

She was a member of Our Lady of the Angels Catholic Church, where a funeral Mass was held April 7.

Ms. Hutchings enjoyed playing bingo and Crazy Eights and watching “I Love Lucy.”

She also was a member of the Meals on Wheels Daybreak Adult Senior Club.

Ms. Hutchings was preceded in death by her husband, Willard R. Hutchings.

Ms. Hutchings is survived by her son and daughter-in-law, David and Marlene Hutchings, of Creekwood; daughter and son-in-law, Donna and Cecil Andrews, of Austin, Texas; three grandchildren; and two great-grandchildren.