The stores at Lake Square Mall weren’t open yet Friday morning, but the parking lot outside Belk was packed and the celebratory buzz could be heard from inside.

That’s because more than 750 elementary, middle and high school teachers gathered for the Leesburg Area Chamber of Commerce’s annual Teacher Appreciation Breakfast, a “Greatest Showman”-themed celebration held just days before Lake County students return to school Tuesday.

There were no real-life circus animals or trapeze artists, but there was a stilt walker towering over the crowd, popcorn being handed out by chamber volunteers all dressed like clowns, the emcee as a ringmaster, principals and teachers dressed in “Greatest Showman” inspired costumes and enough energy to make it feel more like a pep rally than a breakfast.

The morning featured breakfast, entertainment, including an opening rendition of the National Anthem performed on electric guitar by Kevin Baker of Name Brand Studios, that left people in awe.

Games, cash awards and hundreds of door prizes funded through more than $30,000 raised by the chamber and community sponsors.

Most of all, it was all about the community gathering to celebrate the teachers who make those classrooms possible, aka, the stars of the show.

“So goes our schools, so goes our community,” says Chamber President Sandi Moore. “Their success is our success, and if they are failing, it’s our failure.”

Moore says the event is the chamber’s way of showing teachers how much their work matters to the community.

“This is our way to show our teachers just how much we love them, that they matter to us in a big way, because what they’re doing every day, in those classrooms, is more than teaching,” she says. “They are surrogate mothers, surrogate fathers, you know…mentors.”

“They’re sometimes a food bank. Sometimes a clothing closet, so to speak. They just do so much.”

Much of the excitement centered around the annual Spirit Stick competition, which gave schools the chance to take the stage and show off their school pride.

Carver Middle and Oak Park Middle teamed up for a “Stronger Together” tear-jerking performance that earned third place and $250.

Treadway Elementary took second place and $500 after a performance featuring various circus acts and after its principal performed a rap confidently declaring the Spirit Stick belonged to Treadway—last year’s winners.

But it was Leesburg Elementary that danced away with the Spirit Stick and the $750 first-place prize after teachers and staff performed a choreographed, and highly inspiring routine to Pitbull’s “I Feel Good.”

“We were in it to win it this year and we brought home that Spirit Stick,” says Principal Casey Wolf. “We’re so excited.”

Wolf says the event helps set the tone for the school year.

“It’s an opportunity for us to come together and really kick off a great school year,” she says. “The teamwork, the camaraderie, the spirit, it’s really, it’s something that we look forward to every year and our teachers get so excited.”

Leesburg High School also drew one of the morning’s biggest reactions with an edgy remix of the movie’s “This Is Me,” featuring the school’s cheerleaders, drum line and teacher Sarah McKinney, who capped the performance by leaping from the stage while doing a split in the air.

The school also received special recognition during the program for its upcoming 100-year anniversary.

The Villages Elementary of Lady Lake used its time on stage to announce its new owl mascot, while Carver Middle’s Kinetrai Kelley-Truitt scored another victory by winning a cup-stacking challenge that had area principals expertly balancing red solo cups between index cards as high as possible.

Between the performances, games, prizes and plenty of cheering, the morning had the feel of a back-to-school pep rally, one meant specifically for the teachers who will welcome students back Tuesday.

For the chamber, that was the point.

“We are so happy to be able to provide this opportunity to just really celebrate and get their year started off right and show them that they have a community that celebrates them,” Moore says.

And for the teachers, staff, principals and other members of each and every school, it’s a positive way to start the year.

“It’s an incredible event, an opportunity for us to come together and really kick off a great school year,” Wolf says. “The teamwork, the camaraderie, the spirit, it’s really something that we look forward to every year and our teachers get so excited and appreciated.”

As a final curtain call before teachers began gathering their things to go, the morning’s Emcee Scott Chevalier cited his favorite line in one of the songs from The Greatest Showman is “A million dreams for the world we’re gonna make,” likening it to what teachers, each year, do for their students.

“Give yourselves a hand for being here this morning,” Chevalier says. “We hope you have a great school year.”

Photos: Roxanne Brown