When Robin Kingeter walked into her classroom at Harmony Middle School Thursday afternoon, she was met with a surprise.

The art teacher and two-time cancer survivor earned the title of June’s Blue KC Sporting Samaritan — an effort between Major League Soccer club Sporting KC and health insurer Blue KC to highlight local students and teachers who have made contributions to their community.

Retired Sporting KC soccer star and Blue Valley School District alum Matt Besler joined representatives from Blue KC and Sporting to celebrate Kingeter’s award with a surprise visit to her school on Thursday.

Kingeter will be featured at a SKC match this summer

• Kingeter will be honored during the pregame festivities of a Sporting KC match on June 17 at Children’s Mercy Park in Kansas City, Kan.
• Besler, an Overland Park native and Blue Valley West High School graduate, said it’s “a great feeling” being part of the program and recognizing teachers and students for all that they do.
• “You don’t (often) get to see teachers work in their classrooms, and I feel like that’s the best part — getting to see teachers in their element,” he said. “She’s just one example of the incredible teachers we have in Kansas City, and we plan on continuing this program for as long as we can.”

Kingeter has taught art for 23 years

• Most of her career — 16 years — she has been spent at Harmony Middle School.
• Twice she has been diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma, a type of kidney cancer, and she said her students have been a driving force in helping her through both times — including writing daily letters to her during her first bout. 
• Kingeter said the biggest impact of being a teacher hasn’t come from the curriculum itself, but from her students.
• “Kindness, helpfulness, generosity, thinking of others before yourself — I think those things are oftentimes more important than what we’re actually learning in the classroom,” she said. “We hear so many negative things about teenagers, and in my experience, it’s exactly the opposite. There’s so much good in them.”

Thursday’s surprise was “mind-blowing,” she said

• During her time as a teacher, Kingeter has earned other recognitions for her efforts to support students, including receiving the title of Outstanding Middle Level Art Educator of the Year in 2021 from the Kansas Art Education Association.
• She said she felt lucky to earn the Blue KC Sporting Samaritan title, especially so close to the end of the school year.
• “It’s just such an honor and a privilege,” she said. “I feel a little bit like I’m getting something that every teacher deserves. I want this for every teacher.”

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