Teddy Bear Mail delivers smiles at Theodore Roosevelt Elementary School

Neither snow, nor rain, not dark of night will keep the Teddy Bears from delivering the mail, that’s right.
–The Teddy Bear Mail Pledge

Every Tuesday second graders arrive early to Theodore Roosevelt (TR) Elementary School. They come in with a smile on their face and the excitement of taking on their task at hand. The students help deliver the Teddy Bear Mail, TR’s in-school postal service.

This in-house postal service encourages all students, from pre-kindergarten to grade 2, to write letters to their teachers, administrators, classmates, and peers.

Last school year, the TR postal workers delivered almost 2,000 letters and packages. Co-advisors, or postmaster generals, Elizabeth Rehac, a first grade consultant teacher, and Celeste Korzeniewski, a reading teacher, run the club, which is based off of the United States Postal Services’ We Deliver program, which has been discontinued for quite some time.

Students deposit their mail into several postal mailboxes throughout the school corridors.

They address their letters to the receiver of the mail and the hallway’s designated bear name, which include Cubby Bear Court, Teddy Bear Terrace, Polar Bear Place, Black Bear Boulevard and Grizzly Bear Trail, to name a few.

“The whole school is basically a town,” said Rehac.

The Teddy Bear Club supplies the classrooms with stationary, and stickers, which are used as stamps.

“Teachers have little corners set up in their rooms for Teddy Bear mail letter writing,” said Korzeniewski. “Students learn formal letter writing and Teddy Bear Mail Club encourages them to use those skills, although they are not required to do so.”

Second grade students who sign up at the beginning of the year participate in the club for four weeks alternating jobs during that time.

There are usually around 40 students in the club every year.

The jobs include postmaster, who collects the mail from the mailboxes; facer, that takes the mail from the postmaster and places the letters in the facer box with the address facing front and the stamp in the upper right hand corner; the nixie clerk or canceller, who receives all improperly addressed and stamped letters from the facer, although almost every letter does get to the appropriate person eventually.

The canceller who cancels the postage stamps; the sorter, that sorts the mail by address and places them into the appropriate folder to be delivered; and the carrier that delivers the mail. All jobs are thoroughly explained to the participants.

“We promote the jobs that have now been replaced by technology,” said Korzeniewski.

When the children are ready to deliver the mail out of their special postal bags, they don their special hats and deliver to the assigned classrooms.

“They are excited to deliver the mail to the different classrooms,” said Rehac.

“The second graders know the layout of the building. They love to be in the building while all of the other children aren’t here yet. It’s special for them.”

All students at TR who participate either in the Teddy Bear Mail Club, or in writing letters, are learning real-life experiences, using basic skills. Children learn to write a letter, use the mail system, address an envelope correctly, use zip codes, and locate street addresses.

The Teddy Bear Mail Club unifies the student body through a student centered school-wide communication tool; provides a vehicle for students to use their writing skills; develops a sense of responsibility; improves language art skills; fosters teamwork; forms community partnerships and encourages support of school programs while having fun.

A few years ago the post office invited the Teddy Bear Mail Club to collect letters and packages for the men and women serving in the military overseas, which was called Operation Special Delivery. TR participated in a school-wide writing campaign to the troops, offering their support. Students in the Teddy Bear Mail Club that same year had the opportunity to tour the post office.

“Principal Slaiman is very supportive of the Teddy Bear Mail Club,” said Rehac and Korzeniewski.

“He writes letters to the classrooms so they could be read aloud. Many times children will write letters to him and he’ll read them over the announcements.”

In five years time, since the club’s inception, more than 6,800 letters and packages have been delivered.