Flat Stanley in Cahuita
Flat Stanley is the title
character of a 1964 children's book. Although he was
flattened when a bulletin board fell on him, his altered
state produced benefits, including the fact that he could
now easily visit his friends by being mailed to them in an
envelop.
The Flat Stanley Project was started in 1995 by a Canadian
third-grade teacher as a way to teach his students the art
of letter writing, and eventually became an international
literacy and communications project for school children.
Although it has several variations, one calls for the
student to make a paper Flat Stanley character, color him
with crayons, and send him off to some distant place. The
child writes a letter of introduction and asks the
recipient to help Stanley explore the area and report on
his travels, though postcards, emails, etc.
In early 2006, a particularly adventuresome Flat Stanley
arrived in Cahuita, Costa Rica, sent by a young student in
Maryland. He quickly made many friends here, and spent a
week exploring the National Park, eating out with friends,
learning to surf, etc. Some of his new friends took him
along on a weekend trip to San José and the route took them
through the awe-inspiring Braulio Carrillo National Park
where they stopped for a brief visit before arriving at
their hotel and frolicking in its pool. They then returned
to Cahuita for more food and fun, and Stanley made an
overnight visit to one of the nearby indigenous
communities, where the tribal storyteller enchanted him.
Just before his return to Maryland, Flat Stanley had the
privilege of meeting Buttercup, the sloth whose rescue some
15 years ago lead to the founding of Aviarios Sloth
Sanctuary.
Flat Stanley sent back many post-cards and emails to the
students, and also made this little slide show recapping
his adventures, set to a beautiful Latin melody. Except for
a few photos at Braulio Carrillo and the hotel pool, all of
these pictures depict his stay in Cahuita. We think Flat
Stanley did a pretty good job of capturing the essence of
life here. We hope you enjoy the show.
Choose your format (you might have to wait a moment for the
video to appear and start playing):
QuickTime
(recommended)
Windows Media Player