Jack's e-mails

From: Jennifer Sheerin
To: Guy
Subject: Your penguins are awesome!
Date: Monday, January 22, 2001 12:26 AM

Dear Guy,
I came across your website when I was looking for info for a penguin unit that our kindergarten class in Lexington, Mass. is about to start. I think your project is great and especially loved it because our class recently completed a papier mache project.

I was wondering if you ever need hosts for your penguins? The school I teach at is really great and we have an excellent website.

I think your project is very interesting and I would love to have the opportunity to show one of your penguins what life is like in Massachusetts. Our class does many projects that are involved with the environment including collecting and hatching frog and toad eggs, hatching chick eggs, and hatching monarch butterflies. In addition I've just come across information on the plight of the Yellow-eyed Penguin and have E-mailed The Yellow-eyed Trust to see how my class might become involved in purchasing trees to be planted for their environment.

I teach in an integrated special needs kindergarten class with five special needs students and twelve typically developing students. This year has been especially exciting because we have really looked for unusual and different ways to connect with all the students. I know a visit from one of your penguins would really be special.
Please check out our website: Hastings.ci.lexington.ma.us If you'd like to see an example of the papier mache project our class did, it is the one on Humpty Dumpties.

Our school encourages taking risks so..... that is why I am e-mailing you! I'm sure your penguins are in great demand, but if one should be in need of a fun (and educational) vacation, please consider having it come visit us!!!!
My school e-mail address is : *************************

Thanks for taking the time to read this,
Sincerely,
Jennifer Sheerin


From: "Guy"
To: "Jennifer Sheerin"
Subject: Re: Your penguins are awesome!
Date: Wednesday, January 24, 2001 12:33 AM

Dear Jennifer,

Thanks for your e-mail. It's good to get feedback, especially from someone in your field of work. It shows that I must be doing something right.

I checked out your website and I must say it looks great - I just wish I was that young again. As to your request to have a penguin come and visit, I'm sure we can arrange something. I have a penguin sat with me here who looks like she might like a trip to Lexington. I'll have to let them fight it out between them because there's always a rush when they hear there's another trip imminent!

I have a penguin at the moment (hopefully) who's doing a tour of Antarctica and the South Pole, penguin watching. Are you aware of 'Wallace and Gromit' and 'Chicken Run'? If so then you've probably heard of Aardman Animation. This penguin of mine is off touring with Nick Park who is Wallace and Gromit's dad (creator) and the brains behind Aardman. If you haven't heard of them then this is all gobbledeegook (I like that word). The kids should know!

I'll send the lucky penguin off quite soon because I'm off round the world at the beginning of April (well, Australia, New Zealand, Cook Islands and LA) so I'm quite busy organising that as well. I intend to take the project with me and make it global. I will still be contactable via e-mail though so the site will continue to be updated.

Let me know if you're still interested and the address you'd like the penguin delivered to.
Thanks again for taking an interest.
Speak to you soon
Guy


From: Jennifer Sheerin
To: "Guy"
Subject: A penguin visit to Lexington
Date: Wednesday, January 24, 2001 1:52 AM

Hi Guy,
Thanks for getting back to me so quickly!
I'm thrilled that one of your penguins will be able to come and visit our class. It sounds like you and your penguins are meeting some very interesting people and having some amazing adventures! I'm looking forward to seeing the web postings from your penguins trip with Nick Park. His work is so great and I'm sure he will do a lot of fun and creative things with his penguin pal.

I'm glad you had a chance to check out our school website and I'm glad you like it. I'm already starting to think of some of the possibilities your penguin's visit might offer as far as developing a project we might post on our website as well. Please let me know how you would like me to document your penguins visit so that it is meaningful and useful for your project. It would also be helpful to know the approximate length of the penguins visit so that we can plan accordingly (we'll want to make sure she gets to do all the great stuff there is to do in Lexington !).

My address at school is:
Jennifer Sheerin
C/O Maria Hastings School
2616 Massachusetts Ave.
Lexington,
Massachusetts 02421

I think this is the best address to send the penguin to.
I'm at school these days more than I am at home!
Let me know if you need any more info.

Talk to you soon,
Jennifer


From: "Guy"
To: "Jennifer Sheerin"
Subject: Re: A penguin visit to Lexington
Date: Tuesday, January 30, 2001 9:30 PM

Dear Jennifer,
I have a penguin here frantically packing his bags and looking forward to meeting you. He loves kids and looks forward to helping you in the education of your classes. His name is Jack, he stands at 14 inches tall and weighs 390g. I should be sending him off in the next week or so, I'm busy packing, myself, for my own big trip.

What you do with him is really up to you. Obviously, it would be great to have him involved in the teaching side as much as possible. It would also be great if you could regularly keep me up to date (via e-mail) with his progress and the work you are all doing. Any photos you take would be fantastic and I'll put them up on the site as soon as they come in.

Feel free to take him out on 'adult' evenings as all my penguins are pub regulars (I think it's the Welsh in them). Also sightseeing round Lexington (or anywhere you think fun or appropriate) would be good because I'd like to see where he's going to be staying and I'm sure anybody who visits the site would like to, also.

Thanks a lot for your enthusiasm. It's people like you that will keep this project going and, hopefully, will make it even bigger.

Take care and I look forward to hearing from you soon.
All the best
Luv
Guy
XX


From: Jennifer Sheerin
To: "Guy"
Subject: Jack's Visit
Date: Wednesday, January 31, 2001 2:36 AM

Hi Guy!
It was great to hear from you and I can't wait for Jack's arrival. If it's not to late, I was hoping that I could have you add "The Children In Room #3 Kindergarten" to the school address instead of just my name. I think the children would be thrilled to see a package addressed to them. If it's too late, that is fine. In the end, we'll all open and welcome Jack together.
We'll take good care of him.....I promise!

Talk to you soon,
Jennifer


From: "Guy"
To: "Jennifer Sheerin"
Subject: Jack
Date: Sunday, February 18, 2001 11:11 PM

Hi Jennifer,
I must apologise for not contacting you sooner but I sent Jack off on Saturday the 10th of February so he should be with you anyday if he hasn't already arrived.
Unfortunately the trip to the South Pole with Nick Park didn't come off because Nick was worried about taking Hudson, the penguin, through customs. I am hoping, though, that he will be going to live with Nick whilst he writes the new Aardman movie.
I hope you are well and the kids are behaving themselves.
Speak to you soon
Guy
XX


From: "Jennifer Sheerin"
To: "Guy"
Subject: Arrival
Date: Sunday, March 04, 2001 5:15 PM

Hi Guy,
Just a quick note to let you know that Jack arrived the day before our winter vacation. The children were very excited and we are looking forward to having him help us learn about penguins as we wrap up our penguin unit.
Next week we will take him with us to the New England Aquarium in Boston where we will see and learn about three different kinds of penguins. We're hoping to get some good pictures of Jack visiting his distant relatives!
Jack had also been busy using his beak to help point out words and read poems about penguins to the children!
We'll take good care of him and update you soon on his Lexington adventures!
Thanks for sharing him with us.
Hope all is well!
Jennifer


From: "Guy Wooles"
To: Jennifer Sheerin
Subject: NZ penguins
Date: ????
Hi Jennifer,
How are you and Jack doing? I hope you are well and staying out of trouble.
Just thought I'd send you an update to let you know that I am still alive.
I am currently in Oamaru staying with Dave Houston. I've been here for quite a while now (off and on) so I hope he doesn't get sick of me! It's been good to see Dennis again also. I've been to Moeraki to see the boulders and to the lighthouse to see Janice Jones who looks after all the sick penguins. Did you know that one of her old patients, a yellow-eyed penguin called Inca, still comes to visit her in
the hope that she'll give him some food?
The blue penguins at Oamaru haven't been turning up for their fans due to a bad storm a few weeks ago. It looks like the storm forced their food-source out to sea so they had to follow. The nests here should be full of fat penguins on eggs, but they're not. They've only just started returning now after an absence of approximately 17 days! But every time I go down to see them none come in - everyone down there thinks that I'm a jinx! The funny thing is that I've seen quite a few rare yellow-eyed penguins but hardly any common blue penguins.
I'm going down to Dunedin in the next few days and then on to Invercargill and eventually round to Milford Sound. I've already met the people at the Yellow-Eyed Penguin Trust and they now have a paper penguin all of their own called Herbie. Hopefully I'll get them to take me down to the reserves.
I've already done Australia. I did the south-east and the east coast and then flew to Darwin and came down through the Northern Territories and central Australia to Alice Springs and Ayers Rock. So I managed to do quite a bit but unfortunately I didn't get to the west coast - that's another trip!
Anyway, I hope you are looking after yourself and Jack and that you are having a good holiday. I'm looking forward to seeing and hearing what you did.
Take care of yourself,
Guy
XX


From: Jennifer Sheerin
To: paperpenguins@hotmail.com
Subject: Re: NZ penguins
Date: Sat, 25 Aug 2001 08:55:47 EDT

Hi Guy,

I am sorry I have not been in touch sooner. Jack is well and has been enjoying a lazy summer break between June and September. The children at school enjoyed Jack's visit. Jack helped out with many classroom activities and also accompanied our class to the New England Aquarium where he had a chance to visit with one of the penguin handlers. I do have some pictures and will send them shortly.
Autumn is a beautiful time of year here. As the weather turns cooler the leaves turn and the colors are amazing. I would like to keep Jack a little longer and will take a few more pictures of him during this season at some Historic places.
Sounds like your trip has been very interesting. Take care and I'll be in touch soon.
Sincerely, Jennifer Sheerin

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