Traveling Teddy Bear Project underway at St. Pats
Published on October 31st, 2007
STONEHAM, MA - Twenty-eight new members of the St. Patrick School fourth grade were sent packing recently - literally.
As part of the school's first ever Traveling Teddy Bear Project, twenty-eight petite teddy bears were sent by each member of Mrs. Riley's fourth grade to a variety of locations in the United States.
For first leg of their journeys, which began on Friday, October 26, the bears were loaded onto a U.S. Postal Service truck following a blessing from Pastor Fr. Bill Schmidt.
According to St. Patrick School's new principal, Mr. Arthur Swanson, the Traveling Teddy Bear Project is designed to help students learn more about geography and math, as well as enhance their map reading and letter writing skills.
Each fourth grader received a teddy bear thanks to the generosity of the St. Patrick Mothers Club. The students then worked with their families in selecting an out of state family friend or relative to whom to send their bears.
Once the bear arrives at its first destination, the recipient will send a postcard from his or her state back to the school confirming the bear's safe arrival.
Accompanying the bear is a diary into which the recipient can write a note or record information about the bear's stay in that state.
The recipient will then share a photo or information about his or her state, package it along with the bear, and then forward it to a family friend or relative in a third state.
The cycle continues for the next several months with bears returning to St. Patrick's around the first of May. In addition to a bunch of well traveled bears, the project culminates with a fourth grade class back in Stoneham that has gained a keener sense of what life is like in various parts of the United States.
Mr. Swanson has worked with the Traveling Bear Project in previous years and was excited to bring it to St. Patrick School with him when he arrived this year.
While it is a fourth grade project, all students can participate in tracking the bears' cross country journeys with a map that charts all the teddy bear excursions hanging in the school for all to see.
The twenty-eight bears that left Stoneham on October 26 were headed to all four regions of the United States.
To get to their first destinations alone, the bears will have traveled 28,295 miles with many more to go.
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