For the last two years, Batteries Plus has hosted a nationwide contest allowing participants to nominate a teacher to receive a year’s supply of batteries.

This year Patti Hengel was selected and she nominated New Ulm Middle School special education teacher Alyssa Marshall to receive the batteries. Marshall collected the year supply of batteries from the Batteries Plus store in Mankato from store owner Tor Sperling and store manager Tony Marco.

“I was very surprised and grateful,” Marshall said. She had only recently learned of the contest after she nominated to receive the batteries.

Marshall received 12 packages of triple-A batteries and 12 packs of double-A batteries. Each package included 36 batteries for a total of 864 batteries.

“We were lucky to have a winner locally,” Sperling said. He is the owner of four Batteries Plus location and confirmed a lot of individuals entered the contest. He was excited to have one of the winners come from this region.

Sperling said all Batteries Plus location have close relationship with the area schools and they like to give back.

“We want the batteries to go to someone who could use them,” Marco said. Teachers are selected because often their resources are limited. Each year, teachers need to buy supplies for their classrooms and often these extra costs come out of their pockets.

“Everybody needs batteries,” Marco said said.

Marshall said the batteries will be very useful at the school. She said the batteries will likely be used for remote devices at the schools but there are dozens of other uses.

Marshall is also the student advisor for the student council and said the council was able to use the batteries for a special “Neon Dance” held at the school on Friday. The dance was decorated with battery powered lights. This event was already planned before Marshall won the batteries. By having the extra batteries on hand, it was one less expense the school needed to cover for the student. Many of these batteries can be reused for other events.

“The batteries are going to help in surprising ways,” Marshall said.