Actor Chris Pratt mailed a photo of himself in a "Jurassic World" scene along with a cut out of Flat Stanley that was colored by student Dominic Dozier.
Dominic Dozier, a 6th-grader at Lucerne Valley Elementary School, knew it was wishful thinking when he mailed his Flat Stanley Project story and colored cutout to one of his favorite celebrities, actor Chris Pratt, that he would get a response. But the “Jurassic World” star delivered big time.
Lucerne Valley Elementary School library technician Candyce Kennedy had selected the Flat Stanley Project as her elective for the school’s After School Program. Started in 1995 by Canadian third-grade teacher Dale Hubert, the project utilizes paper cut-outs that were based on a 1964 children’s book “Flat Stanley” by author Jeff Brown. In the book, Stanley Lambchop is accidentally flattened by a falling bulletin board. Stanley parents then rolled him up and mailed him to a friend in California.
Hubert expanded on the idea, using “Flat Stanley” to help students improve reading and writing skills and also spark an interest in learn about different people in different places. Under Mrs. Kennedy’s direction, Lucerne Valley After School Program students each wrote a story, colored their cutouts of Stanley and then began mailing them out to people near and far.
“At the beginning of the program, we were not getting many addresses back,” said Mrs. Kennedy, “so I had the students each choose a celebrity they would like to send one of their Stanleys too.”
The students generated the names of a wide range of celebrities “from actors, sports stars, musicians...even Donald Trump,” she said. “I warned the students that we most likely wouldn't be getting back anything from this endeavor, so they shouldn't get their hopes up.”
Lucerne Valley Elementary School student Dominic Dozier, right, and his class show their surprise during the big reveal.
But last week, “Something amazing happened.”
“We received a reply from the actor Chris Pratt, with a signed picture of him from ‘Jurassic World,’ but not only that, he signed the Stanley as well!”
Mrs. Kennedy was nervously excited the day she received Pratt’s response.
“I am shaking as I write this. This is going to be an amazing experience for one of our students and I can't wait to tell him!”
Sure enough, Dominic was thrilled.
“Dominic was completely awestruck when I did the big reveal, as were the rest of the students in the elective,” she said. “After it sank in a bit, he said, ‘I think I'm gonna cry.’ That, of course, caused me to cry, but they were all happy tears.”