Flat Stanley comes to visit!

Several years ago, I was introduced to the world of Flat Stanley.  I had not heard of this wonderful children's program; but I was introduced to it by way of an invitation to have Flat Stanley come to visit me.  I, of course, was honored to have such a prestigious and world-reknown person come to stay with me and visit for a couple of days.  I know many of you were very familiar with Stanley before I learned of him.

  For those of you who don't know, Flat Stanley began his life as a character in  children's books written by Jeff Brown.  The books tell the tale of Stanley Lambchop who was just your every-day boy who was the victim of a falling bulletin board in his room.  The result of this accident leaves Stanley flattened as thin as a pancake.  What's Stanley to do?  He makes the most of his condition which enables him to do many things he was never able to do before.  His favorite thing was that now he could visit many places by being mailed there in an envelope.  He experienced many adventures. 

The story doesn't end here. The story of Flat Stanley took on a new dimension when a third-grade teacher developed a curriculum using Flat Stanley to introduce his students to geography by sending out Flat Stanley to other students and people in other parts of the world. The participants who received Stanley in a letter show him their world and then send something back to the students and then forward him on to someone else. The classroom shows his travels on a world map and learn of his adventures.

It's a wonderful social study and geography lesson all centered around Flat Stanley. I have to tell you that he has been all over the world numerous times and has visited with dignitaries of all stature. If you go to the Flat Stanley website, you can see pictures of Stanley taken in many countries and with many people from all walks of life. There are letters written by children worldwide who have written about receiving him. For example...did you know that Flat Stanley was aboard the US Airways Flight 1549 that went down in the Hudson River? Of course we all know that he survived along with the other passengers.

Here's my Flat Stanley story.   I received Stanley in a letter from my grand-niece Bridget in Illinois who was in 2nd grade at the time.   I was living in The Villages in Florida.  I wanted to show Stanley what life was like as a retiree in a golfing community.  

I first thought I would take him golfing...but I wasn't sure of his golfing skills.  So the next best thing was to take him to the driving range for some practice. It was also my chance to show him my new set of golf clubs.  He enjoyed the trip and was so surprised to see how far I could drive a golf ball.  :)   He wanted to play miniature golf as it was more his style...so we played a round of mini-golf.  We sure had fun!  When we finished golfing, I told him we had one special place left to go that would make his trip complete.

The next stop on his visit was to see the resident buffalo that we had. This was a special time as there were some baby buffalos that I thought he would enjoy. Check out the pictures taken by fellow Villagers. Stanley liked that a lot.

They are really something to see up close. After our big day at the driving range and seeing the buffalo, it was time to see where Stanley would be journeying to next.

Photo by NanaHale on Photobucket

I thought he could use a change of scenery so I told him I was sending him to a friend who lived in Colorado.  She retired from helping Bible translators who spent many years translating the Bible into the local languages on the island of Papua New Guinea. He thought that would be a great place to visit as she could show him the Rocky Mountains and tell of her experiences on the island. 

Before he left via snail mail, we bought a postcard and sent it back to Bridget's school teacher who posted his Florida adventures on their big classroom map.  Several days later, I thanked Stanley for coming to visit and sent him on his way to Colorado.   But that's not the end of the story. 

I was notified that after Flat Stanley had arrived in Colorado, my friend thought he would enjoy an up close and personal visit to the island where she had lived for so many years; so Flat Stanley made his way to Papua New Guinea to visit with a Bible translator living there.  I can't imagine the excitement that he had traveling such a long way and to meet the people of Papua New Guinea.  This was the last I heard of him; but I'm sure he has visited a lot of new and wonderful places. 

If you would like to participate in this program, you can go to the website mentioned in the beginning of this page and sign up to become a participant.  The program now has gone high tech and Stanley is now circling the earth via email.  I imagine him to be sort of a low-atmosphere astronaut of sorts.