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Generations of Ohio County Schools students who have enjoyed being part of the district's outstanding performing arts program have Ben Podolski to thank for many of their memories.
It's not just the scores of children he taught in the county's strings program -- though that's a huge part of it. As former Wheeling Park High School band director Pat Garrett said last week, Podolski was instrumental in the growth of the West Virginia All-State Orchestra, the district's annual Festival of Sound, and the creation of the J.B. Chambers Performing Arts Center, where so many music and theater performances are now housed.
The community has rightly chosen to honor Podolski, retiring this year after nearly four decades in education, for a career spent cultivating the arts in Ohio County and beyond. The Wheeling Symphony Orchestra recently presented him with its inaugural Music Educator Excellence Award. And the West Virginia Music Educators Association followed that with his induction into its Hall of Fame.
The honors are well-deserved. Podolski built the county's strings program from scratch, teaching Park students an hour before his middle school job was scheduled to begin, and sowing the seeds of strings education in every school in Ohio County. The Festival of Sound is a brilliant exhibition of the musical talent of so many students, showcasing their skills both instrumentally and in song.
And is there a better venue to showcase those talents than the Performing Arts Center? The facility is a fantastic vessel to relay those wonderful sounds, as well as a gem for the plays and musicals performed there. Podolski's fingerprints are all over that.
Those accolades and accomplishments are highlights of a career motivated by Podolski's belief that, as he said, "the impossible only takes longer." He has not let difficulty stand as a barrier toward his goals -- and has taught his students the same.
What's amazing is that this career wasn't always Podolski's original goal. He wanted to become a professional performer, but in working toward that goal, he found his calling.
"After three or four years here I started to think, 'I like this,' and it wasn't something that I thought I was going to do with my life at first," he said. "As I started spending more time with the kids, I realized this is what I'm supposed to be doing."
He's absolutely right. Podolski has been doing for nearly 40 years exactly what he should be, and so many Ohio County students are better off because of those efforts.