In honor and respect for his retirement and his achievements at Madison County High School, the signers of this petition move to request the naming of Madison County High School's auditorium be changed to the "Donald R. Hitt Center For Excellence In The Performing Arts".

Since the beginning of his teaching career, Mr. Hitt has been impacting the lives of students through education in the subject of English and Theater.  Over the course of his teaching, several students have expressed clear how they struggled under other teachers but because of Mr. Hitt's belief in them they were able to grasp concepts that were hard to understand.

That belief in his students carried over into his coaching  where he coached theater, forensics and debate, across three different leagues, while most high schools in VA only compete in one league or one category. Mr. Hitt fielded teams in all three and success followed. In just ONE of the THREE Virginia leagues alone, Mr. Hitt has:

• Been recognized as a VHSL Hall of Fame Coach
• Won a record 17 state forensics championships, 9 of them consecutive 
• 71 individual state forensic champions 
•  6 state theater championships

•  20 outstanding actors in theater
•  3 state debate championships
•  15 individual debate champions
•  3 Students Named Achievement Award winners

On the national level he has:

• 9 National Finalists
• Two Students Recognized as Student of The Year by the NSDA
• Recognized as a Triple Diamond coach by the NSDA, an achievement requiring three decades of coaching experience and over 6,000 coaching points, which are an accumulation of student success.

Beyond his massive achievements in teaching and coaching, his selfless spirit is what will be most remembered in his retirement. Through his teaching he gave knowledge, his coaching he gave success but through his selflessness he gave hope to so many students needing it. Whenever students have been lacking in financial resources to attend tournaments or have the supplies necessary to attend tournaments he took it upon himself to provide for those students so they would not go without. 

So in honor of this man's achievements in teaching and coaching, and to recognize his heart of service, we the signers of this petition request the Madison County School Board to rename the auditorium of Madison County High School to bear the name of a great servant of the Madison County Community.