Alejandro Bedoya
The first response came from Alejandro Bedoya. To my amazement, he sent every student a letter in reply. He went above and beyond anything I was expecting. The kids were ecstatic! Above is a picture of the scarves and autograph pictures that he sent for each kid. Truly amazing. The package came just before lunch and the kids were buzzing. I TRIED to calm them down before taking them to the cafeteria but I don't think it did much good. When I picked the kids up, the cafeteria mentioned they were wired and had a hard time staying quiet. I apologized and said it was all my fault. I'd gladly take the blame for that one.
Jamie Watson
Our second response came from Jamie Watson. At the time we wrote to Jamie he was a member of the Austin Aztexs. By the time I put the letters in the mail, the team had been moved to Orlando. Luckily this package got to my classroom about 30 minutes before the end of the day on a Friday. I say luckily because when I opened the package and looked inside, all I saw were bags...and more bags of candy. The kids went wild. Pretty sure the kids may have been more excited about the candy then they were about the scarf, autographed pictures and letters that Jamie had sent. Again, personalized letters to each kid. Awesome. Even more awesome...a jersey for the teacher. Woo hoo! Sadly, the only pic I got of the scarf, letters and candy from Jamie has the kids in it and so I can't post it here. Sorry!
Stuart Holden
Our third response came from Stuart Holden. The kids were very excited about getting a response from Stu as he was the first player we had written to. They also may or may not have watched some of the Bolton vs Everton on the SmartBoard in our room. Shhhhhhhh. It was for research purposes!! The best part was when the kids were watching (for research purposes) they asked "Which one is Stuart?" I replied "The one with the blonde highlights." Their response: "I SEEEEEEEE HIM!" haahaaa.
Maurice Edu
Our most recent response came the day we were letting out for winter break. The kids had just finished their party and were hopped up on sugar. We had some time to kill before lunch so I put on the holiday episode of The Magic School Bus to hopefully calm the kids down. While they were watching, I checked my email and had a message from the front office. I had a package! Always good to be friends with the front office ladies! They know about my project and so they let me know the minutes a package has arrived. I even had the first 2 delivered to my room! Anyway, I had a parent still in the room because her daughter didn't want to leave since I had put on the video....so she stayed, waiting for it to end. I asked her if I could run down to the office to get the package and she agreed. I quickly got the package and brought it back to the room. The minute I walked in with a box, the kids were no longer interested in the video. We opened it up and inside were 2 scarves, letters and autograph pics from Maurice Edu. I gave the kids the letters to read. We then decided to head down to the office to show our principals our latest response. On the way we ran into our art teacher who is from Scotland and grew up a Rangers fan. She was SUPER excited about our scarves. We shared our response with the principals who read some of the letters the kids got from Mo. It was a very cool way to end the semester.
Our most recent response came the day we were letting out for winter break. The kids had just finished their party and were hopped up on sugar. We had some time to kill before lunch so I put on the holiday episode of The Magic School Bus to hopefully calm the kids down. While they were watching, I checked my email and had a message from the front office. I had a package! Always good to be friends with the front office ladies! They know about my project and so they let me know the minutes a package has arrived. I even had the first 2 delivered to my room! Anyway, I had a parent still in the room because her daughter didn't want to leave since I had put on the video....so she stayed, waiting for it to end. I asked her if I could run down to the office to get the package and she agreed. I quickly got the package and brought it back to the room. The minute I walked in with a box, the kids were no longer interested in the video. We opened it up and inside were 2 scarves, letters and autograph pics from Maurice Edu. I gave the kids the letters to read. We then decided to head down to the office to show our principals our latest response. On the way we ran into our art teacher who is from Scotland and grew up a Rangers fan. She was SUPER excited about our scarves. We shared our response with the principals who read some of the letters the kids got from Mo. It was a very cool way to end the semester.
I am so happy that we've gotten responses. Even if we don't get any more this year, I can say that it was a success. The way these US Soccer guys have responded was above and beyond what I expected. I am SO proud to be a supporter of such a wonderful group of guys. The fact that they would take the time out of their busy schedules to write my class back is just so amazing. These guys have made 16 new lifelong fans.
This semester is going to get hectic with TAKS test preperation. I can already tell it is going to be tough to fit in time to write the letters. No matter what, I am going to fit it in. My goal at the beginning of this was to have enough scarves for each kid to take one home. I will do my best to make sure we reach that goal.
