The Holden Image

It was announced this week that Holden Drug, owned and operated by local pharmacist, Mike Levy, has been purchased by Wilkinson Pharmacy, Inc.

Wilkinson is a regional retail pharmacy chain based in Nevada, MO. With retail pharmacies located in Nevada, El Dorado Springs, Lamar, Lebanon and Rich Hill, Wilkinson offers comprehensive pharmacy services, over-the-counter items, cards, gifts and photo processing.

Wilkinson Home Care Equipment was established to meet the need for sales and rental of durable medical equipment. The Home Care division offers oxygen therapy services, sales and rental of medical equipment, sales of medical supplies as well as insurance billing services. Wilkinson Health Services, the "closed door" pharmacy division, handles all institutional pharmacy business specifically serving nursing homes, residential care facilities and group homes.

"We are pleased to be coming to the Holden community and look forward to growing with the community. We want to offer those services requested by the Holden residents," commented Mike Beisner, President/COO.

Few American children can say they have not read or had read to them the story of “Flat Stanley,” the little boy featured in a book by children’s author Jeff Brown in which a little boy was flattened when a bulletin board fell on him. As the story goes, Stanley wanted to go and visit friends in California, but it was too expensive to go by plane or train. Since Stanley was so flat, his family was able to mail him to visit his friends.

The popular children’s book has turned on a light bulb for many teachers, who have used the story to develop a teaching exercise that many have found to be effective in helping students learn the fundamentals of art, reading and creative writing.

In the project, students draw a “flat” likeness of themselves and mail it to a friend or family member along with a letter asking them to keep Flat Stanley with them for a week and write about all of his adventures.

Recently, students in Mary Burgess’ sixth grade language arts class participated in the project and received some very interesting responses.

“I saw the project as a way to make a lesson on writing a friendly letter more exciting,” Burgess explained. “My daughter had done the project in the second grade in Illinois, and I thought we could use it, too.”

Burgess said the students sent their Flat Stanleys to friends and family members virtually all over the globe. “It is unreal how much time family and friends put into this project,” Burgess said. “The kids got back scrapbooks, letters and postcards.”

Burgess said in addition to the curriculum lessons that students learn from the project, students also become better acquainted and more in touch with family members they may not have seen for awhile. “It’s just a really fun project,” Burgess said, “and, what they get back they can keep forever.”

Perhaps one of the most fascinating Flat Stanley projects in Burgess’ class was that of sixth grade student Brian Easter, who sent his Flat Stanley to Africa with his Uncle, former Holden resident Randy Vick who now works as a police officer in Liberia.

Vick sent Flat Stanley back to Easter with a number of pictures of Flat Stanley with various African citizens in the area he works in as well as a lengthy account of the week spent in Africa (written in first person by Flat Stanley).

Burgess said Vick’s response to Easter’s Flat Stanley was an especially helpful learning tool because sixth grade social studies teacher Debbie Wagoner had been teaching her students about Africa the week Vick’s response was received. Wagoner was able to use the information sent to Easter to grab the students’ attention and make their studies of Africa an even more real experience.

An excerpt from Vick’s story reads, “We had to drive for more than two hours through the deep, dark jungle to get to Buchanan, where Uncle Randy lives and works as a police officer. I should say that Uncle Randy is not really my uncle. He’s Brian’s uncle, but I like calling him uncle, too. While we were driving, the road was so bad that we were bounced all around inside the police car, and the drive had to keep swerving from one side of the road to the other side, trying to miss all of the big holes. Uncle Randy said because of the war here, which lasted for 14 years, no one repaired the roads. That means the war lasted longer than my whole life and everyone else’s in the sixth grade, too. So many people- men, women and children were killed in the war. Uncle Randy said it was more than 250,000. So many children do not have a mother or father, and they don’t know their brothers or sisters. It makes me very sad to think about that, but I wanted to tell you so you could be sad for these kids, too.”

The students did indeed become sad for the children in Africa. So much so that they began collecting items to send to Vick in Africa, where they will be distributed to students at Bless Elementary School in Liberia.

In addition to Africa, the Flat Stanleys sent out by Burgess’ class have been to Australia, Washington D.C., and to California to visit the cast of Orange County Choppers, among other places.

“It’s neat and kind of touching to see the kids get all excited when they get their Flat Stanley’s back,” Burgess said. “He’s been across the world.”

Burgess said the family and friends who received Flat Stanley even used creative ideas to engage the kids in the activity. For example, one of the Flat Stanleys created by the students had a sort of mohawk on top of his head. The student sent Flat Stanley to his grandmother, who said Stanley needed a haircut, so she sent him back to the student without the mohawk. Another Flat Stanley recipient wrote that Stanley had received a hot wax treatment (lamination).

Some of the students are still waiting for replies from their Flat Stanleys, including one that has been sent to Japan.

This is the second year Burgess’ class has participated in the Flat Stanley project, and with the success the students experienced this year, it is sure to be a part of the sixth grade language arts class plan for many years to come.

By Christi Stowe
News Editor