Pen pals to meet on trip

Waimarino Bulletin, Volume 2, Issue 4, 26 June 1984, Page 16

Pen pals to meet on trip

Pen Pals are a great thing for kids to have and it's twice as nice to get to meet your pen pal in person. That's what 34 students at Raetihi Primary School are going to find out. For a week, starting 30 July, students from Miss Collette Schollum's class are going on a trip to Hastings to meet pen pals with whom they've been corresponding in a class taught by Miss Schollum's brother in Hastings. "I have a brother teaching at intermediate there," Miss Schollum said. "And we had the idea of writing letters to his students." Miss Schollum

and her brother then came up with the idea of the students, or pen pals, meeting each other. The aim of the trip is interaction and social and cultural exchanges with children of the same age but from a different environment. The Raetihi students will stay at the homes of their pen pals and embark on a schedule of activities including a visit to Cape Kidnappers, Marine Parade and the Te Pa Tuwatawata child-size historical Maori village. Aside from Miss Schollum and Rosie Irwin, also a teacher at Raetihi Primary

School, six parents are chaperoning the children on the trip. Miss Schollum, who has been teaching at Raetihi for five years, said that the money for the trip has been raised in various ways; a bottle drive, disco, raffles and on Wednesday 27 June, a Batons Up will be held as the final fund-raising event. It will be open to the public and held at the Raetihi Primary School Hall at 7.00pm. Admission is 50 cents and supper is included. So far $1545 has been raised for the trip to Hastings.