- Someone should push my cart for me, you know?
I'm a celebrity. [laughter]
male announcer: "Repeat After Me."
Tuesdays on ABC.
- There's a kindergarten teacher
from Albuquerque, New Mexico in our audience.
I want you to meet her. Sonya Romero, come on down!
You teach kindergarten, and what is the question--
the first question you ask every morning?
- So I ask my kids if they've eaten that morning,
if they need anything to wear or need to brush their teeth
or comb their hair.
We usually spend about the first hour of our morning
getting ready for our day to learn, and I--
I feel like, as educators, we're sort of first responders, so...
- And so--and you've taken in two foster kids.
You have two children of your own, right?
- I have one son. - One son.
He's in the audience, I think. - He is, he is.
- So, he was just watching--
[cheers and applause]
So you have one son, and-- aren't you proud of your mom?
Doesn't--isn't she cool?
- Yeah, I'm very proud. - Yeah, she's--
She's an amazing woman. So then you took in
two foster children-- tell everyone the story of that.
- So they were two of my former students.
They were in my class, and, um,
Child Protective Services had come that day
and I think any time Child Protective Services comes to,
you know, a school, you know it's never a good thing.
And they were there that day.
It was a Friday and I got a call,
because they had requested if I would have them for 48 hours,
and I said, "Of course." They're beautiful children,
and so I sent my family out to get--we had nothing,
so we got toothbrushes and jammies and underwear
and brushes and, uh, they've been with us ever since.
- For how long now? - Six months.
- Six months. - Six months.
- Good for you. You're amazing.
[cheers and applause] - Thank you.
- You're amazing. - Thank you.
[cheers and applause]
- We have a little surprise for you,
if you look at that monitor right there.
- Okay.
["I Bet My Life" by Imagine Dragons plays ]
- Miss Sonya inspires me
because she's just fun.
- When we say we love her, she says she--she loves us back.
- I still visit her, just to say hi and give her a hug.
Makes me feel, like, comfort, kind of.
- And I want to be like her when I grow up.
I want to be able to make everyone feel like they're equal
and they all have some part in the world that they can improve,
they can make it a better place,
- Miss Sonya is the embodiment of all the best
that goes on here the school.
- The way she connects with students
is--is really authentic.
She decides what their strengths are,
and she really kind of pulls that out of them.
- Teachers are supposed to have these professional boundaries,
and whatnot, but she really-- her heart has no boundaries.
- She starts every morning making sure all of her students
have clean clothes and they've eaten breakfast.
- Sonya was here late one night,
and we had two children in crisis,
and the social worker could not find
an emergency placement for those children.
- Without a second thought, Sonya said, "I will take them."
- Well, a weekend became a week,
became "I'll just help them through the holidays,"
and now she is full-on their foster mom.
- Sonya says, over and over, "This is not about me.
This is about all of us."
[music resumes, singing] So I, I bet my life--
[applause] - Thank you for all that you do.
to make the world a better place.
- Thank you for being awesome.
- Thank you for teaching me,
I'm really happy that you did.
(all) We love you, Miss Sonya!
[cheers and applause]
- Thank you so much.
[crying]
- Well, now I'm crying too, because--
[laughter] It's sweet as can be,
and your son's crying-- you're an amazing woman.
Now we're gonna--we want to talk about the school, and--
Tell everyone the name of it again,
because I want people to help it.
- Lew Wallace Elementary in downtown Albuquerque, NM.
- Go to our website if you-- 'cause when you hear
the budget that they have, and what comes out of her pocket--
we want to help this school, we want to help these kids.
And we're gonna help you when we come back.
So you're busy and you're spending a lot of money,
because you care about these kids--
- Absolutely. - And so Target wants to
help you, they want to help.
And I know that you've gotten a donation for $100,
from someone who was a good Samaritan.
You turned around and gave that $100
to a woman you saw crying on a bench.
So Target wants to give you $10,000.
- Oh, my God. [cheers and applause]
[cheers and applause]
- This is for you.
[cheers and applause]
And...
[cheers and applause]
And because I know what kind of person you are,
and you think you're going to use this $10,000
to help other people, they also want to give
$10,000 to Lew Wallace Elementary School,
so you're gonna get another--
- Oh, my gosh! [cheers and applause]
[cheers and applause]
- Oh, my-- - So one's for you,
one's for the school.