Students help teacher pop the question
History teacher Anthony Poullard proposes to fiancee Ashlee Gildford on May 6
May 22, 2018
Diamond Bar High School teacher Anthony Poullard, with a little help from his students, popped a question unrelated to history: On May 6, the history instructor proposed to his girlfriend.
“Over time we started developing more of a friendship and it eventually turned into a relationship,” Poullard said. “When I was thinking about it, I thought to not just propose but… surprise her a little bit.”
Poullard and his fiancée, Ashlee Gilford, have both been longtime fans of Marvel superhero movies. With the new movie “Avengers Infinity War” coming out, Poullard came up with a idea to make an “Avengers”-themed trailer to propose to Gilford at The Fountain of Love Christian Center, where they had first met.
“I thought about it for a long time, and I knew I wanted to do something special particularly at a place that was meaningful for the both of us,” Poullard said.
After Poullard told his Modern World History students about his plans, they put their minds together and came up with ideas.
Among their contributions to the big events were a poster featuring pictures of the couple with heartfelt sayings and a video clip of the junior varsity basketball team–which Poullard coaches–spelling out “Will you marry me, Mrs. Coach P?” on basketballs.
“I wanted them to take part at this moment in my life, and the students recently definitely delivered,” Poullard said. “It just came out so so awesome, and I appreciate all the effort the students put in.”
It was a week of non-stop work by Poullard and his students, during and after school, in preparation for the big moment.
During church service on Sunday, church members, including both of Poullard’s and Gilfords’s families, were directed to look at the projector for a usual church announcement.
That surprise turned out to be the trailer Poullard had been working on.
Once the trailer finished playing, Gilford and the audience stood in shock as Poullard came out on one knee, with his friends carrying the finished posters behind him. She said “yes.”
“In the end of the day, not everything is about school and history vocab,” Poullard said. “There’s other things to life and school is definitely a big part of that, and it matters, but there is other things that matter just as much.”
