Seven wonders close to home and heart

Family photos, a baseball hat, a teddy bear and a Bible are among the items valued by students at Oakstead Elementary School.

By MICHELLE MILLER, Times Staff Writer
Published November 7, 2007

Jake Reilly, 9, looks over the box created by classmate Tyler Prockish, 10. Oakstead students pulled together things that mean a lot to them. The selections by Jake included a family photo, a trading card of a motocross rider, a logo of his favorite computer game and a recorder.
	[Mike Pease | Times]

ADVERTISEMENT [Mike Pease | Times] Nick Santiago, 10, packs away articles he included in his "Wonders of Me" box. Nick included a family photo, an Ohio Buckeyes T-shirt and a baseball glove. Oakstead Elementary students have put together the boxes filled with their personal seven wonders.

LAND O'LAKES

Awhile ago, some folks from the New7Wonders Foundation decided it was time to revisit the Seven Wonders of the World, so they asked people throughout the world to weigh in for an election of sorts.

More than 100-million people cast votes, and on July 7 a Declaration Ceremony was held and the New Seven Wonders of the World were named and called equal.

According to the Web site www.new7wonders.com, there is still a validation process and a New7Wonders Inauguration Tour to complete, but as it stands today, here is the list: Chichen Itza, Mexico; Petra, Jordan; Christ Redeemer, Brazil; Machu Picchu, Peru; Great Wall of China; Taj Mahal, India; Colosseum, Italy.

If you think there's a history or geography lesson forthcoming, think again, because this article is not really about those wonders but about what educators at Oakstead Elementary drew from the news event and how they got a school full of children to see their community and the microcosm of themselves in a new and wondrous way.

First, teachers had students in grades 2 through 5 read a book called The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springsby Betty Birney.

"We were looking for a book that would be a common thread to all of us," said media specialist Susan Hoffacker, who helped coordinate the event.

The book, about an 11-year-old boy named Eben McAllister who lives on a farm in Missouri and is fascinated by the Seven Wonders of the World, fit the bill.

It takes place in the summer of 1923 when boredom sets in and Eben's father challenges his son to search for seven local wonders in his seemingly unremarkable world. Undoubtedly, Eben finds some extraordinary stuff.

That got principal Tammy Kimpland thinking that it might be a good idea for students at Oakstead to look for the seven wonders of Land O'Lakes.

And so students and their teachers talked about the places in Land O'Lakes that meant a lot to them.

Some, like the second- and third-grade students in Amy Casey's class, brainstormed a list.

It was a very good lesson, said Casey. "We sometimes think we live somewhere ordinary and there isn't anything special."

But when you really look, sometimes you find treasures.

So the school held its own election of sorts, and the Seven Wonders of Land O'Lakes were revealed last week at a special schoolwide ceremony. Here they are: Land O'Lakes Library, Land O'Lakes Recreation Center, Hungry Harry's Barbeque, WalMart, Target, Oakstead Elementary School and McDonald's - the one with the motorcycles in the play area.

That was very nice, and it certainly got the students thinking beyond their own back yards. But educators thought it would be even better if students delved deeper.

So they sent the students out to discover the wonders of themselves and to somehow fit them in a box they could decorate and show to everyone in the school.

To be sure, there were a lot of family pictures, like the one Nick Santiago brought that was taken of him and his grandfather in his grandfather's Ohio kitchen.

"He died about a week after this was taken," said Nick, who also included an Ohio Buckeyes T-shirt his mom gave him, a miniature skateboard, a plastic cup from Olive Garden - "because that's my favorite restaurant," he said - and a baseball hat from Puerto Rico, because that's where his dad is from.

There were other wonders shared by many: baby blankets, bracelets and the very first baby outfit; baseballs caught in the bleachers at major-league games; rocks, shells and foreign coins from family vacations; trophies and treasures that had been passed down, like the green jeweled ring Randy Morefield's grandmother left especially for her.

"It was the ring I gave my grandmother for Mother's Day," said Randy, 11. "I got it back after she passed away."

Among Abby Murray's stash was a picture from a second-grade field trip to a corn field in Pennsylvania, where she used to live; a shell from the Outer Banks of North Carolina; a SeaWorld ticket stub; and her sister's pink New Testament Bible.

"It's special," said Abby, 8, said of the Bible. "Because it pretty much tells me how to live my life."

Brooke Strauch brought a CD of her chorus performance, markers - "because I like to draw" - her favorite book, Sarah Plain and Tall, and a well-worn teddy bear from the time "when my brother was really sick."

In 10-year-old Tommy Guglielmello's box was the front page from the New York Times on the day he was born - Feb. 9, 1997 - his first Communion cross, a wooden box he doesn't remember making when he was 3 and a Mickey Mantle baseball card, dated 1992, that his grandfather gave him.

Teachers also shared their own "Wonders of Me" boxes.

Heather Wall brought the handkerchiefs her grandmother carried on her wedding day, the "will you marry me" note in a bottle from her husband, Todd, and a photograph of the first time she laid eyes on her daughter, Ainsleigh, now 5, in the hospital delivery room.

"It was fun, but it was hard to just pick seven," said Wall who teaches the fourth and fifth grades. "I guess that means I've had a good life."

And that kind of realization, perhaps, is the biggest wonder of them all.

[Last modified November 6, 2007, 20:24:21]