From left, Auxiliary President Connie Cordell and past President and First Vice President Marlene Walker hold the Carol King Show and Tell Award on Sept. 30 at the Amvets Hall Post #33 in Jay. Leo Goddard/Franklin Journal

JAY – On Friday, Sept. 6, the Post #33 AMVETS Ladies Auxiliary was presented with the PNP [Past National President] Carol King Show and Tell Award, an award that is “presented to a Local Ladies Auxiliary for an outstanding project in any program.”

Auxiliary President Connie Cordell and past President and First Vice President Marlene Walker had been working closely with teacher Melissa Brown on a project at Academy Hill School in Wilton for the past year. They started volunteering with children in Brown’s classroom; holding parties, making crafts and birthday cards for local veterans.

During one of their visits, Cornell read the book Flat Stanley by Jeff Brown to the class. The children enjoyed it so Cornell introduced the Flat Stanley Project to the class.

In the original Flat Stanley book written in 1964, Stanley was a boy so thin that he could be mailed in an envelope to his friend in California when he wanted to visit. In 1995, Dale Hubert created the Flat Stanley Project for his third grade class. They started mailing a small cutout of Flat Stanley to different places, the first time being from Canada to the United States. The Flat Stanley Project site is one of the first literacy websites in the world.

Cornell and Walker participated in the project with the students at Academy Hill. They sent Stanley all over the country and even the world. When Stanley would return, there would be a letter written from whoever he was visiting with a picture and sometimes other goodies as well. One notable instance was when Stanley came back from Belgium with Belgian candies.

A photo of Flat Stanley from his trip to Boston as seen on Sept. 30 the Amvets Hall Post #33 in Jay. Leo Goddard/Franklin Journal

Cornell said that the project helps the children with literacy and geography skills. She shared that the kids would come up with the ideas for the letters they would send with Stanley. Walker shared that after they began the project, they put up a map and started putting pushpins in each location that Stanley visited.

Cornell and Walker submitted essays, letters, and photos for multiple awards offered by the AMVETS National Ladies Auxiliary. When the 78th National Ladies Auxiliary Convention in August came and went, Cordell and Walker still hadn’t heard any news about the awards. They felt a slight disappointment that their hard work hadn’t made the cut, but were ready to move on and continue their hard work.

But a few weeks after the convention had passed, Department Parliamentarian Lisa Stoddard informed Cordell that they had won the Show and Tell Award for their work on the Flat Stanley Project and wanted to have a surprise presentation at the Post #33 AMVETS Hall. They were able to gather a crowd on Friday, Sept. 6, to receive the award with Melissa Brown and Academy Hill Principal Keith Acedo in attendance.

This was their first ever national award in the 54 years that they have been operating. Cornell and Walker said that they are very proud.

The Post #33 Ladies Auxiliary also received a Runner Up Certificate for the PNP Linda McGriff Community Service Award. Cornell said that this was for any volunteer work that they have done in the past year including running bingo events, or grocery shopping for veterans. They logged 4,902 volunteer hours from May 1, 2023 to April 30, 2024.

Cornell said that she wishes more people had the time to do more volunteer work and that many people don’t realize that what they’re doing might qualify as volunteer work.