Hundreds Of Postcards Make Their Way To Local Classroom

Hundreds of postcards have made their way to Kelly Engel’s second grade classroom at St. Francis of the Lakes Catholic School.

The students were shocked when they came back from spring break to see a large amount of mail. After the class joined a project where schools send postcards to each other, they only got eight or nine postcards. A few Facebook posts asking for postcards went viral, some being shared over 5,000 times, and the mail started pouring in.

“I didn’t really know that was going to happen, and I thought maybe we would get fifty or sixty postcards,” says Engel. “It’s gone way beyond that.”

They’re having trouble counting the massive stacks of postcards they’ve gotten from all across the globe.

“They’re from all over the United States and Antarctica, Indonesia, Germany and lots of other places,” says Engel. “We’ve gotten some that we can’t read because they’re from the Czech Republic and they’re written in a different language. It’s been a really cool experience.”

The kids enjoy learning new things about the people and places they’ve gotten postcards from.

“I like when you look at the different postcards and you learn about different animals, people’s favorite foods, and their names,” says student Ashten Weber.

“My favorite part is when we read them all and see what state they’re from,” says Grace Sarvie, who is in Engel’s class. “You learn something about each state.”

While they’re improving their geography and math skills, they’re also learning something even more valuable.

“We’re learning about how really great people are and how much people care about us. In our little town, our little school in Brainerd, all those people from all over the world think we’re important enough to send postcards to. It’s pretty cool,” says Engel.

“People are kind enough to get us postcards and send them here from different states and countries,” says student Audri Hollingsworth.

Engel says she’ll probably take part in the project again next year, but is hoping for a more manageable response.