Cooks Corners Students Meet Their Pen Pal Heroes: Valpo HS Football

Cheers greeted the Valpo Boys football players as they entered the third grade room of Carol Kennedy today at Cooks Corners Elementary School.

For the last seven weeks these young men have been exchanging letters with these third graders, and today the players came to Cooks Corners to meet their pen pals in person. They also gave each student a football t-shirt and signed them for the students.

Character coach Heidi Bernardi and Vikings Head Coach Dave Coyle came up with the idea of pen pals for the football players four years ago.

“The players wanted to come up with a community service activity that would impact the young people in our community,” Bernardi said about the program. “The impact hasn’t just affected the little ones but it has had a positive impact on the players. “

According to coach Coyle they rotate schools each year. This year it is Cooks Corner and Memorial. The players who had pen pals at Memorial Elementary School visited them earlier in the afternoon. The pen pal program involves 88 football players matched up to 88 third graders.

Bernardi said that the team follows the acronym REAL: R stands for respect. E stands for especially women and A stands for always do the right thing.

“L connects with what they do with their pen pals; Live a Life that matters,” said Bernardi.

Coach Coyle agreed.

”Every second of every game they are being watched,” Coyle added. “They can’t let their guard down. They can’t throw a ball down or their helmet. They can’t lose their cool because someone out there is watching them and thinks of them as hero. We have to make sure we keep that standard going.”

And the program has had a positive impact on the students too, Kennedy said.

“Some of the kids that don’t write a whole lot are writing paragraphs and pages. It really helped with their writing.”

Principal Elaina Miller was equally as elated to have the Vikings connect with the school.

“When I walk into the classroom and see students working on their pen pal letters they are so excited! It makes writing more purposeful to each student and motivated the children to do their best writing.”

And for the Vikings players themselves, they love the idea of a program that connects them with the community of Valpo, and future Vikings.

”It gives us a sense of being someone’s hero. It’s cool to be a part of the community. I’ve been a part of this a couple of years now and it’s been fun every year,” Valpo High School Senior, Chris Orlich, said.

As Chris was talking his pen pal came up and said hi, Chris without hesitation said “Hi Buddy”. You could see the level of respect between player and pen pal today, and feel the pride in everyone’s eyes of a community that operates like one, solidified team.