Delivering A Surprise
Delivering A Surprise T he sun was shining outside Sam Adams El-ementary School in Cassopolis. But it could not touch the bright and shining smiles of Mrs. Heather Burns third grade class at precisely one o'clock Tuesday. That's when the class was taken outside to greet a Wal-Mart truck with a very special gift. The truck was on hand as part of a reading contest that was developed between Burns and Deb Bosworth a Wal-Mart truck driver who happens to be part of the Trucker Buddy program in which Burns' class partici-pates. Trucker Buddy International a non-prof-it organization matches up teachers and driv-ers as pen pals. Drivers write the students each week, sending post cards and pictures of where they're going and where they've been. Through the letters to which they respond students gain more than just reading and writing skills. Bosworth said students gain skills in geography, math, history and even social studies. Bosworth has been the `trucker buddy' to Burns' class for the past eight years. It just so happens that we are friends and family, said Burns. This year they did something a little different. Burns said her class was showing rather low reading scores back in September. Burns said that Bosworth wanted to know what she could do to help. She suggested a reading contest, said Burns, and she said, what if I get a bicycle for the most improved (student)? The contest was on. But while the children were reading hundreds and hundreds of books 915 books in all, 1,901,677 total words, an average of 35 books and 73,000 words per child according to Burns, Bosworth was spearheading a mission of her own. She went to Wal-Mart stores throughout the area including Wal-Mart in Niles, Elkhart, Portage and Kalamazoo and asked them to donate bi-cycles. For every student in Mrs. Burns' class. The mission ended with a Wal-Mart tractor-trailer parked behind Sam Adams Elementary School, By Jessica Sieff www.truckerbuddy.org 11