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October 11, 2001

I just wanted to share an experience with you...and thank you for your initial flyer that came to me in 1991. I almost threw it away, but was intrigued and convinced my middle school students that this was something very worthwile. In convincing them, I convinced myself...a person who hadn't written a letter in 20 years!! You hooked me up with a teacher in Lithuania. Over the years she told me about her students...one in particular. To make a LONG story short. We went to Lithuania and adopted this child, who is now 16, driving, a typical American teenager. You helped a miracle happen, and we are grateful!

Myra J. McDonald, Educator
U.S.A.

I know that the students are enjoying their correspondence immensely.  It is amazing to them to find that these young people have similar interests...and even similar slang...thanks to the Internet. They show off the photos of their new friends to each other, and I am so glad that they are having this contact with another culture and the opportunity to broaden their worlds; thank you for providing this service!

Joanne Thomas, Educator
Connecticut, U.S.A.

Was reading the teacher recommendations and was reminded that it was your organization that connected me with my first Russian pen-pal in 1990!!! She has since visited me in the U.S. , married an American and now lives in the FAR EAST. She put an ad in a hunting magazine in Russia for me, enabling me to find a Russian falconer. The falconer and I have been corresponding for over 8 yrs. and I have visited him in Siberia. Thanks for the initial help which got me started (I had tried the Embassies but with no results). Spasebo!

Richard Lowery, Falconer
Louisiana, U.S.A.

I'm just writing to thank you for the wonderful service you provide. My pen pal from Georgia just called me on the phone and it was so great to hear her voice (and to learn how to say her name correctly!). Thanks for running SAPE and providing the opportunity to have pen friends in the former Soviet Union!

Sarah S., High School Student
Maryland, USA

Hello SAPE!

Once again, my freshman Geography students are excited to get their penfriends.  We think your program is a wonderful one.  Keep up the great work!

Sincerely,
Wendy McAtee, Social Studies Teacher
Tooele High School
Tooele, Utah, U.S.A.

Dear Michele,

I'm thankful to you for great opportunities you give my pupils for correspondence. For years now, we have been corresponding.  We have received more than 100 letters only in our school!  I record all letters in my album for correspondence.  It's very pleasant that our people and children begin to understand better your people.  The interest for studying the English language is great.  Many thanks for your fine work.

Best wishes,
Nina Maslygina, English Teacher
Chisinau, Moldova, C.I.S.

Dear Michele,

My penfriend, Dee Lorente, and I are so thankful for you for giving us a chance to meet and to become friends -- it was SAPE and you who gave my address to Mrs. Lorente and we have been corresponding for about 3 years already.  Our pupils became penfriends, too.  We exchanged letters and pictures and we organized a very interesting contest on history and geography of the U.S.A. and Russia.  It was really a great experience for me. I never thought I could ever find such a good friend - we have so much in common, though in many ways we are different.

You won't believe, but my dream has come true - I was invited to visit them and I spent a wonderful month in Hayward, California.  My other SAPE penfriend, Betty Ackermann, was also invited and we spent a week travelling to such beautiful places as wine country, Santa Clara, Oakland, San Francisco, Lake Tahoe.  We went to Santa Cruz to see the Independence Day Parade there and then I had a chance to see all their family celebrating the holiday.  It is really very different from what I expected to see.

Dee organized a picnic in the Marina Park and many pupils and their parents came to meet us.  One day, reporters came and we had a long talk, and soon an article appeared in the Daily Review about our correspondence and meeting.

It 's always very hard to say "Goodbye," I love and miss my friends.  But I hope to receive letters, to talk, and to meet them again someday!  

Many thanks,
Valentina Mikhailova, English Teacher
Blagoveshchensk, Russia, C.I.S.

Dear Michele,

I just wanted to thank you again for the latest batch of pen pals for my students. My kids are from a blue-collar community just outside Philadelphia. Although they are so close to the big city, they are a relatively sheltered group. My students are seniors and juniors in high school. This year, as in previous years, I have tried to broaden their cultural background and enhance their world view. However, texts by world authors can only go so far. The SAPE program has sparked new interest in my students, regarding politics, traveling, and understanding cultures other than our own.

This is how I have used SAPE in the classroom: I have all of my students send for a pen pal. Then, I provide the first set of air mail stationery and stamps for their endeavor. I actually assign a grade for the first letter written, so that they all share in the experience. This year, almost 70 of my students wrote to pen pals in the former Soviet Union.

After the first set of letters were sent, my kids immediately became anxious about whether they would, indeed, receive a response. Knowing from past experience with SAPE that the process of sending a letter and receiving a response can often take one to two months; I tried something new. I xeroxed maps of, and other information about each country and gave each student a packet. I then gave them the hypothetical adventure of "planning a trip" to their pen pal's home country. Students read about the regions, the products of import/export, and the cultural/religious make up of the citizens. Then, they were asked to write questions they would ask upon arrival. This sparked their interest. They were more than ready with content for their second letter.

This fall, I was completely surprised that within a few weeks, we had already received a dozen letters back from pen pals. The students each read their letters aloud to the class. The kids were so surprised to hear that teenagers in Latvia, Lithuania, and so many other countries like rock and rap, are concerned about social issues, have pets, and work after school. Every letter that came with a picture of the pen pal further bridged the gap between our worlds. Now they are all anxiously waiting for more to arrive.

What is even more special about the program is that it has inspired my students to reach out to other groups as well. My AP English class initiated a class adoption of a fourth grade class in North Philadelphia. We used this location to keep an immediate response network, while we await more news from our distant SAPE friends. This effort has expanded their pen pal experience and they have gained a new awareness of other students who are close in proximity, yet very different in ethnic and socio economic realms. They have truly learned that writing to people of diverse backgrounds can be rewarding and seemingly effortless.

Overall, I have learned that students can genuinely become excited about learning, when given the opportunity to be a part of a living history lesson. My students are now more worldly, and their letter writing skills and understanding of audience when writing has greatly improved. It is great to know that in this sometimes frightening world of online chat rooms, an organization like SAPE can bring together students from aorund the world who care about learning.

Kudos to you for your hard work. I appreciate your effort in making a valuable resource available to my students. Please feel free to pass on my letter to any other interested teachers and learners. I would enjoy speaking to other teachers or youth group leaders who have tried SAPE, or are considering the program.

Sincerely,
Laurie Petronis, M.S. Ed.
English Dept., Academy Park High School
Sharon Hill, Pennsylvania, U.S.A.

To Whom It May Concern,

I am a Peace Corps Volunteer serving in Kyrgyzstan, Central Asia, The Commonwealth of Independent States. Presently, I teach English in the capital Bishkek, to ten college sophomores who are all approximately eighteen years old. I am writing on behalf of SAPE which has efficiently supplied my Kyrgyz students with American penpals.

At the beginning of the 1994-95 academic year in September, we sent ten requests for correspondence. By the third week of October, the first student had received a letter from a young American who lives in Upstate New York. News travels by word of mouth very quickly here, so you can imagine the reaction this student encountered when she informed our class and her friends. The girl was simply ecstatic.

Considering the fact that all letters from the U.S. arrive within four to five weeks, I am very pleased with SAPE's efforts. My students now have opportunity to use their English beyond the classroom. Moreover, they have a chance to improve their writing skills which is very important as the regular methodology used here in teaching English as a Foreign Language does not emphasize writing.

The Volunteers in Kyrgyzstan are currently forty-six in number, the majority teaching in the high schools here. Many of my colleagues have already mailed requests to the SAPE office, their students eagerly awaiting the first correspondence which will undoubtedly arrive soon. As an instructor of English, I am extremely grateful for the mere existence of SAPE and for the efficient response to our requests.

Sincerely,
Michelle M. Quackenbush
U.S. Peace Corps Volunteer
Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan, C.I.S.

Dear Michele,

It is indeed a pleasure to write this letter in support of SAPE. My students, who received penpals through SAPE immediately following the break-up of the USSR, had a most positive experience. Approximately two-thirds of the 60+ students received responses within two months. Many of those students are still in touch with their penpals and have followed the changes in the child's country over these three years.

I was, however, most impressed with the assistance SAPE provided for those students who did not receive responses within three months. Your letters through a Moscow contact netted many more responses in a short period of time. SAPE even provided new names and addresses to me for the students who had not gotten a response within the first semester. This was truly "above and beyond" what we expected. Ultimately, over 90% of my students carried on regular correspondence with their penpals. Only four students received no letters at all, even after new names were furnished. I consider that a phenomenal success!

Your assistance in supplying me, as a teacher, with some background data as the changes in the former USSR occurred was also exceptionally helpful. Our experience with SAPE was a most fruitful one.

Best of luck!

Sincerely,
Anita Kassof-Minor, Teacher of the Gifted
Lawrence Public Schools, Number Two School
Inwood, New York, U.S.A.

Dear Michele,

I want to thank you most sincerely for the dearest penfriend you have found for me -- Sonya Newton, from Winston-Salem, North Carolina. We have been corresponding for about 3 years now, sharing joys and sorrows, unfortunately. I write about it, but I do not hesitate to say it again - this is the most fantastic experience and you are the one whom we thank.

Best wishes to you,
Inara Zlaugotne, English Teacher
Tukums, Latvia

Dear Ms. Cervoni,

I am writing to tell you of the difference your penfriend exchange has made in our foreign language exploratory classes here at Sheridan Junior High School.

At the beginning of our quarterly Russian unit, I invite students to send for a Russian penpal. Without fail, our penpals have arrived within ten days, along with an excellent guide to letter-writing.

The letters which arrive during the nine-week class, and those brought in by former students have given my classes new insights and understanding of the Russian culture. Without fail, the penpals write clearly, and in English when desired.

Thank you for providing a very exciting and inexpensive opportunity for understanding.

Sincerely,
Dale Wenburg, Foreign Language Instructor
Sheridan Junior High School
Sheridan, Wyoming, U.S.A.

Dear Michele,

This is to acknowledge that SAPE has provided nineteen of my students a rewarding opportunity to link with a young man or woman in the Soviet Union.

All of my students, juniors and seniors, have received one or two letters since they began corresponding in the fall. There was some delay in receipt of letters between December and March, but everyone enjoys the correspondence that has included greeting cards on such special occasions as Christmas and Easter as well as personal photographs.

My feelings are that this program is a positive experience for my students. I also feel that it would be beneficial to any students who wish to take part in the program.

Sincerely,
Sally Aversano, English Teacher
Half Hollow Hills High School East
Dix Hills, New York, U.S.A.

Dear Ms. Cervoni,

The students in one of my tenth grade English classes are registered with SAPE and have Russian pen pals. My students have written to their pen pals twice.

This exercise has proven to be a most rewarding one for me and my students. It has motivated them to be interested in world events, location of places on the map, cultural and ethnic backgrounds of people in other countries, as well as sensitivity to the problems and life styles of young people their own age in another nation.

Most of all, their writing skills are improving because they have a peer group audience not just in their class or school.

The excitement of my students about this project warms my heart, and I would like all teachers to share in this good feeling. You can by joining SAPE.

Sincerely,
Juanita Blowe, English Teacher
Piscataway High School
Piscataway, New Jersey, U.S.A.

Dear SAPE,

Thank you for offering such a special service for my students. Through it I was able to discuss different parts of the Soviet Union. Of course it naturally leads into what is happening there right now. Our students' penfriends are spread all across the USSR. That makes for very special lessons discussing the range of physical features inherent in such a big country.

Sincerely,
Fredia Hester, Teacher of the Gifted and Talented
Palacios Elementary School
Palacios, Texas, U.S.A.

SAPE, P.O. Box 319, Monroe, CT 06468-0319, USA