The list of things I’m thankful for is long, and includes my
family, nachos, our church, orthopedic insoles, my health, generic Advil, good
friends, and pretty much any pork product, just to name a few.
I am also very thankful for my job as an author, because it
allows me to visit so many elementary-age students and attempt to inspire them
to do big things. I even get to create stories with some of them. I’ve been
writing progressive fairy tales with the kindergarten classes at our elementary
school for years now. Each child adds the next sentence to the story, and they
are hilarious.
On this Thanksgiving eve, I am especially thankful for an
organization called RPAL – the Roseville Police Activities League – and for its
director, Vivi Nevarez, and all the volunteers that help run this great after school
and summer activities program. The mix of kids is everywhere from your run-of-the-mill
elementary schooler looking for a fun afternoon program all the way to some
very at-risk youth who could be one misstep away from a much different life.
Most of the kids come from low-income, single-parent homes or foster care.
RPAL and programs like it all across the country are known
to be the largest organized crime prevention programs we have as a nation, and
the people who dedicate their lives to facilitating these programs cannot be
thanked enough.
I was fortunate enough to be asked to come do an author
workshop with the RPAL kids yesterday, and we wrote a progressive fairy tale
with a group of twelve young people ranging from second grade to high school.
It was a room full of wonderful imaginations. An obvious
love of cereal, combined with some Harry Potter and Hansel and Gretel
influences, as well as a ton of good old-fashioned making stuff up brings us
this:
Enjoy!
The Cinnamon Toast Crunch Incident (Alternate title:
Maybe We Just Go to the Store Next Time)
By Oliver, Marvin, Messiah, Aiden, Jonathan, Kimberly,
Carolyn, Jazmin, Jasmine, Cassie, Gianna and Cianna
Once upon a time there was a funny talking robot tennis ball
named Jack, who bounced around from place to place. He was friends with a fast
orange turtle named Raisin who was generally mean to everyone he met.
One day they desperately wanted to eat Cinnamon Toast Crunch
cereal, but they had no milk. They naturally decided to go look for a magical
cow to milk in the deep dark forest. After three suns and two moons of
fruitless searching for a milk cow, they encountered a dark, evil witch.
Before they could resist, the witch cast a spell on them
with her twisted magical wand that was made with the feather of a Phoenix, and
they found themselves floating into her dark, creepy house.
Jack and Raisin were floating past the witch when Jack used
his extendable robot arm, that could extend over five hundred million thousand
feet. He extended his arm like lightning and grabbed the magic wand out of the
evil witch’s hand.
Unfortunately, she had a second wand, and she pulled it out
of her cloak and used it to continue levitating them into her huge oven. The
door slammed behind them and the fire came to life under them.
Jack, thinking quickly, used the first wand that he was
still holding in his extendable hand to conjure up a full-size cow inside the
oven with them. The cow broke the oven open with its enormous body, and
immediately kicked the evil witch right in head and sent her flying one
thousand billion trillion feet into the air.
With the witch gone for good, the black and white cow just
stood there mooing at the two friends. Jack used the magic wand to levitate
their Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal to the witch’s kitchen table, then politely
asked the cow if they could milk her.
The cow was nice enough to say yes, and the two friends
finally enjoyed their delicious breakfast. After they were done eating, Jack
and the cow jumped onto Raisin’s back, and the super-fast turtle ran them all
the way home. When they got there, they filled their whole house with Cinnamon
Toast Crunch, and milked the magical cow for one trillion years until the whole
house was a gigantic bowl of cereal.
The end.
Thank you Vivi, and all the other RPAL rock stars, for the
opportunity to come hang out with your kids for a few hours and bring this
story to life. I am very thankful for your tireless dedication. Keep up the
good work!
Have a great Thanksgiving!
See you soon,
-Smidge
Copyright © 2016 Marc Schmatjen
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