Flat Stanley travels all over the world

If I mentioned the name Flat Stanley, would you know who I was talking about? If you have little children or grandchildren, you might.

Flat Stanley is a character invented by a man named Jeff Brown more than 50 years ago. Story goes that Stanley became Flat Stanley when a classroom bulletin board fell on him. Luckily, he wasn’t hurt because Flat Stanley is made of paper.

There are thousands of Flat Stanleys in the world. Maybe hundreds of thousands. Because he’s thin, he has been able to travel around the globe in an envelope. Children in primary and elementary schools everywhere have been making Flat Stanleys and mailing them to classrooms somewhere far away. Now they send him online but, for half a century, he was mailed, along with his journal. The receiving students would treat Stanley as a guest, add to his journal, complete with pictures, and mail him back to where he came from.

In this way, students got to learn first-hand how kids their age lived in a part of the world they knew little about. If your child’s class is not aware of this idea, maybe he or she could introduce Flat Stanley to his or her school. Now, there are apps, downloadable templates to make customized Stanleys, free accounts for classroom exchanges and everything the school needs for sending, receiving and sharing Stanleys. Google Flat Stanley. You’ll be surprised by what you find. Sounds like a great project.

Fred Trainor is a retired broadcaster living in Okanagan Falls.