Walking with the Giant: Are You A "Real" Leprechaun?

Wednesday, March 18, 2009

Are You A "Real" Leprechaun?

By far the two most popular questions asked of me yesterday at Baker County Pre-K/Kindergarten Center were "Are you a 'real' leprechaun?" and "If you're a "real" leprechaun, where's your gold?" There is no telling how many of the children asked me those questions during my annual St. Patrick's Day visit.

Running a close second to the "real" questions was "Why are you so little?" I always love hearing this question because it gives me an opportunity to tell the students how God made each one of us different: some tall; some short; some skinny; some heavy; some different colors, and so on. No matter what the questions may be, the children really seemed to enjoy our visit and teachers tell me it is talked about long after the session ends. In fact, after last year's "leprechaun" visit I received a very nice e-mail from the parent of a student saying her child's excitement continued for some time.

During yesterday's visit with the children, we were joined by a representative of the Florida Times-Union newspaper in Jacksonville. Today's edition of the newspaper features a photo from the event on the front page of the Metro section. The photo is of Baker County Superintendent of Schools Sherrie Raulerson and the leprechaun as one session got underway. She took time from her busy schedule to thank me for volunteering my time for this annual event. The Times-Union also produced a video of the event. I have embedded the video at the end of this post. A High Definition version of the same video may be viewed on Vimeo. It may take longer to buffer and play if you have a slower internet connection speed. An online photo gallery from the leprechaun's day at school is also available on the newspaper's website.

I always enjoy reading a leprechaun story on St. Patty's Day at this school because the teachers go all-out with the theme and make it very easy for me. Principal Fay Sinclair, Assistant Principal Bonnie Jones, the teachers and staff are certainly a joy for this ol' leprechaun to work with and to be around. May God bless you all for your efforts in teaching these blessings from God!