Woody Connor couldn’t pick up his teaching award Thursday night, but that didn’t stop one of his students from singing the teacher’s praises.

Third-grader Andrew Bailey let the audience in on a secret about Connor, a special education teacher at Dawes Elementary School.

“He gives me candy,” Bailey said. “But don’t tell anyone, because then the other kids will beg for some.”

Bailey and 14 other area pupils read essays and poems about their teachers for an audience of nearly 150 people Thursday night at the Levy Senior Center, 300 Dodge Ave., to celebrate the end of National Teacher Appreciation Week.

The appreciation week first was held in 1985 in order to thank public schoolteachers.

A panel headed by Mary Gavin, publisher of the Evanston Roundtable, picked the 15 pieces that were read at Thursday’s event. The winning students also awarded a red apple made of stone to the teachers who have inspired them.

“This event is to recognize teachers who do exceptional work,” said Hardy Ray Murphy, superintendent of Evanston/Skokie School District 65, which includes local elementary and middle schools. “A simple story, a memory or an anecdote can mean so much to them.”

The event was sponsored by a consortium of community organizations, including the two districts, the Evanston Council of PTAs and National-Louis University.

“With all of the negativity and the low morale of the teachers in this district, it’s fantastic to forget all about that for one night,” said Pat Gregory, president of the PTA council.

Mayor Lorraine H. Morton proclaimed Thursday Evanston’s “Day of Teacher Appreciation.”

“It’s because of teachers in Evanston that so many people move into Evanston for our schools,” Morton said.