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Show Up and away, balloons soar vo find pen pals Tr:-CT:e-e;ght-seven-six-f ive-four--s-:o-0.E was the final countdown "? the sky filled with 700 hehum-balloons hehum-balloons at Naples Elementary ..say afternoon. March 22. students at Naples Elementary par.ic:patir.g in the Writing Pals Cor.test being sponsored by the 'Sil Reader. The Weekly Reader is sussroom newspaper at the school. balloon had a message attached - '?cla:n;ng what the project is which ire doing and asking the finder to it to the school. There is a place -eh of the messages where the stu-ccan stu-ccan put their name and teacher's on. When the finder of the balloon '-3 back to the school telling of their -''ery. the student who's balloon it 'mes that person's new pen pal. The Weekly Reader will present a S"xm prize to the school who hears back trom someone receiving their balloon from the farthest away. The school who has a balloon who has traveled the farthest away receives this prize. In addition to this, there will be loo runner-up prizes given to the schools. Since the project began. Weekly-Reader Weekly-Reader has provided about one and half million free ballons to the schools participating par-ticipating in the program, said Debbie Moatz. first grade teacher at Naples. The purpose and reason for the program pro-gram is to motivate the children to write to and to become familiar with students in other states of the country. In order to participate in this contest, the school must already have a pen pal. Mrs. Moatz's first grade class has a pen pal in St. Charles. Missouri. II a school wants to participate in the contest and w ants to have a pen pal. they mut write in to the Weekly Reader. They will set them up with a pen pal. They try to match the classes up to one similar but in a different area, said Mrs. Moatz According to Mrs. Moatz. last year there was one balloon which traveled 8.UOO miles. It was let go in New York and ended up in Africa. By May 13 each school must have their entry into the Weekly Reader for the one they have had travel the farthest in order to qualify for the contest. Wednesday morning. Dr. Murphy received a call from Winterpark, Colorado Col-orado telling him one of the balloons had ' - . V .vq-fi - , . '.- . 1- Z - ; 0 V'tf'-i . . V 1 . ' ..... - i " . , ... ' '.."''-' . :i , ING THEIR BALLOONS which they hope K.atlI uel farthest distance are (left to right) Menr'kson, Leigh Slaugh, and Jackie Brewer The balloons were let go i uebudy cmc-noon cmc-noon March 22. Attached to each balloon was a message to the finder of the balloon. been found in the caller's garden. He wanted to call and let them know he'd found one. Mrs Motaz said it was good for the students and. "'I think it was good for the teachers, too." Mothers of the children spend the morning mor-ning preparing balloons for their flight and journey to see which one would travel the farthest. ! ' V' .'- .'.! i i ' . t., ' ' '-? v If! ' -t ' ! VI ' 4 ' - ' Jfc L, DAYNKEN BOWT.HORPE hangs onto his balloon until the final countdown. 'nu v . BILL MASSEY gets excited about the big event soon to take place. . - -v- - " v" . i. . v . , K sv , V. ' - M -X J'V' . - (,' . , -.' "w v v ' AFTER THE COUNTDOWN, the sky fills with balloons from Naples School for the Weekly Reader Writing Pals Contest. |