Barrhead student's Flat Stanley is a hit in Ontario

Orange pajamas may not sound like the best clothing for an adventure in a far-off place, but Flat Stanley is no ordinary little guy.

He can go places, see people and do things most of us can’t, except in our dreams. That’s one advantage of being a paper cutout — you are so thin and small you can slip into an envelope and be mailed virtually anywhere.

Seven-year-old Curtis Sommers, a student at Barrhead Elementary School, sent his pajama-clad Flat Stanley to Sheila Gowing, a relative in Monkton, Ont.

Other children in the Grade 2 class also created Flat Stanleys and mailed them to someone special in Canada, but only Curtis’s made the headlines.

Gowing took the bright orange cutout to her local paper, The Listowel Banner, which ran a story under the headline “Flat Stanley visits Monkton from Western Canada.”

The story recounts Flat Stanley’s adventures, including having his photo taken with new Perth—Wellington member of provincial parliament Randy Pettapiece, Monkton Wildcats players and Redeemer Church ladies as they prepared sandwiches.

Gowing also took Stanley to a Lions Club meeting, the Stratford Festival Theatre, a Monkton Wildcats game and the Monkton library.

“I did take a lot of pictures,” Gowing is quoted as saying. “It’s so they in Barrhead have an idea what interesting things are around. When you think about it, we are in driving distance of a lot of interesting things.”

After hosting him for a month, Gowing mailed Stanley back to Curtis with photos, North Perth and Monkton pins, a Wildcats toque and a copy of the Banner for his class.

Class 2A’s returning Stanleys – including Curtis’s – now occupy a board on a wall in the classroom. Attached are the newspaper article, pins and a wealth of photographs from all over Canada.

Teacher Carissa Henkelman said this was the fourth year Class 2A students had done a Flat Stanley project.

“It’s a way of learning about different places in Canada,” she said. “Only two out of 20 Flat Stanleys did not return.”

Leaves, sea shells from Nova Scotia, candy from Quebec, a toque, maple syrup, a teddy bear and a stuffed goose were among items accompanying returning Flat Stanleys.

Curtis was delighted to hear his Flat Stanley had been a big hit in Monkton.

“It is really exciting,” he said.

Flat Stanley is the creation of American author Jeff Brown, who wrote a book in 1964 about a boy squished by a falling bulletin board given to him by his dad. It was the first in a series of books featuring Stanley Lambchop.

Dale Hubert, a Grade 3 teacher from London, Ont., started the Flat Stanley Project in 1995 after deciding it was a great idea for children in his class to create their own cutouts and mail them to friends, relatives or classrooms across the world, accompanied by a journal.

Flat Stanley has met Stephen Harper, Muhammad Ali, George W. Bush, Canadian troops in Afghanistan and even gone to the Oscars with Clint Eastwood.