photo Tom Burley

ALLISON ‘LEECH, 12, and Catharine Ranger, 12, show examples of the gym ‘strip and mascot bear Upper
Lynn Elementary students sent to their ‘‘twin’’ school in Costa Rica as part of an ‘“‘Amistad”’ friendship pro-
grain. Jastin Lay, 12, shovs the national flag and a map of the country they received from Costa Rica, on

display in their schoo).

Upper Lynn ‘‘twins’’ for peace

REMEMBRANCE DAY has an extra significance for Up-
per Lynn‘Elementary students, because it was at this year’s
school ceremony, November 10, that they celebrated the
beginning of their ‘‘twinning”’ with a Costa Rica school.

As part of. the Remembrance
Day focus on war and peace, the
420 Upper Lynn students became
involved with an ‘Amistad °’
(Spanish for. ‘‘friendship’’) pro-
gram with the 700 students at the
Escuela delia Ovieda de Acuna in
the town of Los Juntas. ‘

**We can only have peace if we
have an understanding of each
other - our similarities and dif-
ferences,”’ says school ‘vice- prin-
cipal Phil Marshall.

“Once we recognize these dif-
ferences .and build greater toier-
ance, then we can work on future
peace,’’ he added.

Costa. Rica is like. ‘Canada, in
that it is a peaceful country, with
no regular army.

But being next to Nicaragua and

the recipient of refugees from
there, Costa Rican students may
have more of an awareness of the
conditions of war than their Upper

* Lynn counterparts.

The two schools have already
exchanged items, the Upper Lynn
students sending a set of gym strip
and a bear, which is the school’s
mascot. They also prepared a
video tape showing a day in their
lives.
| Upper Lynn school has made a
display of the things they received
from the Costa Rican school, in-
cluding maps, flags snd pictures of
some of the students. There are
plans afoot to begin an exchange

of pen-pal letters.

Marshall hopes that the twinning
of the schools will also improve the
student’s geographic awareness of
‘Costa Rica and that part of the
Pacific Rim, of which we are also

a part.

“It’s a beginning of something
for the school that will last, hope-
fully, many years,’’ said Marshall.

7 - Sunday, November 27, 1988 — Lynn Valley Echo

Argyle student
wins national .
letter contest

FOR MANY people, writing letters can be a chore. For
Argyle student Helen Garratt, though, it was the means to
winning a four-day trip to Ottawa.

Garratt, 16, was recently an-

nounced the winner of Canada
Post Corporation’s 1988 National
Letter Writing Competition. Over
3,000 entries were submitted, but a
panel of four judges unanimously
voted Garratt’s the first-prize win-
ner.
. The theme of the contest this
year was ‘How do you imagine
the journey of a Ietter?’? Garratt’s
letter, a story entitled The Life and
Times of Bill McLeod, follows the
journey of various letters — all
with very unique personalities —
that make their way through the
postal system to their intended
recipients.

Garratt’s prizes include a com-
puter and printer, a certificate of
recognition and a pen and _ pencil
set. She and her family — parents
John and Elaine Garratt, and
brothers Andrew, 10, and Richard,
8 — were flown to Ottawa for the
presentation of the prizes.

A Grade 11 student who intends
to become a journalist, Garratt
saw a poster advertising the contest
at school. “‘I like to write, so I
thought maybe I could do it,”’ she
said. ‘‘I had no idea at all I would
win.... My English teacher was

Ghop early for best Xmas selection)

pretty happy. .

Garratt was told in Ju une that her
letter was one of the fi nalists, and
found out in September that it had
won. It was Subsequently submit-

HELEN GARRATT.... Grade 11
student wins Canada Post contest.

ted to the international letter writ-
ing competition sponsored by the
Universal Postal Union in Berne,
Switzerland, where it received third
honorable mention.

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