Caton Avilla is known affectionately as “Mr. A” by his students and fellow teachers, and many of them will tell you Avilla has gone above and beyond to help transform Tularcitos Elementary School since he first accepted a position as their PE teacher eight years ago.

Avilla was nominated by Jake Odello, Carmel Unified School District’s Board of Education clerk, who said “as the PE teacher at Tularcitos Elementary School in Carmel Valley and the summer camp coordinator for Cachagua Summer Camp, Mr. A has been a driving force in enriching the lives of students and families. His dedication is evident in the custom summer programs he designs each year, incorporating unique activities, field trips and the now-iconic end-of-summer barbecue.”

Avilla always knew he wanted to be a teacher, but his job quickly turned into something much more than just teaching.

“I love the importance of education and I know that there’s a lot of resources that are in our district that make it really easy to make a really profound impact for all the kids that are in our community.”

When he first started teaching, he knew he had to do something after students would come back from breaks with varying experiences. Some students would say they vacationed in Hawaii or went to France, while his students living in remote areas said the highlight of their week was visiting the Target in Seaside.

He wanted to give Carmel Unified’s kids who receive free and reduced-cost lunch, English language learners and the homeless and foster care kids experiences so they could also come back from breaks and say they had an awesome time.

As a part of the nonprofit Friends of Cachagua Children’s Center, Avilla and a few other community members focused on helping support district-run programs to give those students — classified as unduplicated count students — an even better experience. Avilla fills out grants and looks for donations to help supplement the district’s funds for these kids.

“They need more experiences and they need to be looking forward to something during breaks instead of just being stuck at home with idle hands,” he said.

Avilla first started teaching at Tularcitos when he was 22, after receiving his teaching credentials from Chico State. Outside of teaching PE for TK students, Avilla is involved with extended learning opportunity programs throughout the district — something he said was his first big push upon starting his job.

“I feel like the biggest part for me was I want to try to do the most that I can do to give to the kids that need it most, because I grew up as a remote youth,” Avilla said. “I feel like it’s almost a reflection of my background and knowing what I would have really loved, and then also having some empathy for some of our youth here that deserves so much.”

He acted by creating new programs. It first started with after-school programs at Tularcitos, which then expanded into the spring and summer. The programs gave kids enrolled something to do, and middle and high school students a chance to build volunteer hours and career readiness skills.

Avilla has used the school breaks to provide kids with a variety of different experiences and is planning for more future opportunities. As an example he said in a previous year, they have taken the kids out to Great America.

He also helped start a three-week summer camp program, which he said is “pretty amazing.” On average, he said usually about 85 kids come to the Cachagua summer camp.

At the summer camp, kids get the opportunity to do activities such as playing with water balloons, but Avilla also invites a lot of community leaders to share their skills. He explained the kids get to learn everything from taekwondo, bird watching, yoga or pilates, clay throwing and even science experiments from experts. “You name it, we’ve done it,” he said.

Summer camp attendees also get the chance to go on field trips to San Jose for things like baseball games and on the Monterey Peninsula to visit movie theaters, Dennis the Menace Park, Point Lobos and more.

While the summer camp provides lots of opportunities, Avilla also uses it as a chance to teach water safety skills. “We’ve coupled with Big Sur and we bus kids from both Cachagua and Big Sur to come out here to Carmel Valley Community pool, and for one week, we get a bunch of high schoolers to come and volunteer and teach these kids how to be water safe.”

“We’ve kind of worked together toward creating programs for them to have like an opportunity-based education,” he said. “It’s less about academics and it’s more about giving kids experiences that they otherwise wouldn’t be able to.”

Alongside the other board members of nonprofits he’s on, Avilla feels they have done a lot of important work.

“We’ve tried to give back as much as we can,” he said.

Avilla is on the advisory board for the Community Fund for Carmel Valley, is a part of the Friends of Cachagua Children’s Center and is involved with the Carmel Valley Community Youth Center.

“We just have a lot of great community leaders out here and it’s easy to be a community leader when there are a lot of those same types of people around,” he said. “We’re very blessed to be around so many awesome people.”

Avilla said while there are the big wins — like opening a new park and having a grand opening, creating the summer program and having a huge turnout or when they held the first summer camp after the pandemic — for him it’s the small victories that mean the most.

“It’s like one step at a time of the kids trusting you, and them knowing that you’ve got their back. I’ve been fully clothed, jeans and all, and had to jump in and save a kid (in the water). And then taking the kid up for air, and he like looks at you in the eyes and he’s like, ‘thank you, Mr. A for saving my life,’” he said. “They know that they can push themselves because we’ve got them. We’ve created and fostered that positive learning environment for these kids, so I feel like it’s small moments.

“There’s big moments where kids are super stoked to just be in the moment with you and share that special moment with you. I feel like that’s always been a highlight of mine,” he said. “It’s just having those shared moments and memories with kids taking big jumps.”

Most of all, Avilla circled back to having a huge appreciation for his surrounding community, both in the Carmel Valley and the Peninsula as a whole.

“It’s a wonderful community. I feel like we always look after each other,” he said and compared it to watching a Hallmark movie. “Everyone knows everyone and everyone says hi to you. You just build so many genuine connections with everyone in this community.

“My biggest takeaway is that we just have such a great community,” he said. “The more we can do to foster our youth that might need a little bit more help. I just think that it just makes our community even better.”