Thank You Mission

Thank you Cody Schliebe for making this dream come true.

This mission, the final school year mission, is one that I shall remember for a while.  The Superheroes embraced the spirit of these acts of kindness and really, truly believed they were Superheroes called into action.  They flew (or ran) the entire distance with smiles and jokes the entire way.  Each one had learned that showing appreciation is a most important of tasks.  For this mission, they were able to take a teacher, Meg, from another classroom on her first mission.  I still smile at how transformative putting on those capes of kindness has been.

The mission, which we accepted with great pride, was to deliver a thank you note to Bernice's Bakery.  For the last couple of years, Bernice's Bakery has baked the pizzas the children make each month so that the school can hold Pizza Day, a day in which each child in the school is part of the process of creating pizza to enjoy together.  We were charged with delivering a thank you note.

The children were very excited to don their capes and enjoy a (rare) sunny day.  They 'flew' the whole time!  As mentioned before, flying means running so fast that we believe we are actually flying.  Usually we fly a block or two and then need to walk a bit.  But the joy of the mission took over and boy did we want to fly.  The children did stop at each corner, lay down, and take a nap for a minute before they took on the next stretch of block.

We took a detour to Bitterroot Floral to pick out flowers.  The children were very excited to pick out their bouquet and were even recognized by the store workers.  After carefully selecting our flowers, we made our way to Bernice's where we were able to hand deliver our thank you.

This particular delivery ended up being extra special, as the fellow who had oversaw our pizza baking will be leaving after the summer to pursue photography.  The joy on his face as this group of children hand-delivered flowers and a thank you note, not knowing we were also saying goodbye to a friend, was worth the trip.  He brought out his camera and took a couple of pictures of the children before we flew back to school for music.

During the mission, one boy who had put his shoes on the wrong feet and initially resisted the adult requests to switch his shoes to the right feet, finally decided to put his shoes on the appropriate feet.  He was feeling like he could not move as fast as he wanted.  Immediately upon making the switch he flew down the street bearing a huge grin.  He stopped to say, "Kristal - look!  I am flying so fast there are stars coming out of my back!"  And sure enough, there were.  I do believe I could not have scripted a better last mission.  Thank you, my original band of superheroes, for helping make a difference one mission at a time.

*The first summer mission - fence painting with Imagine Missoula - was delayed due to rain.  As soon as there are a couple of sunny days, we will reschedule.  If you would like to join us, just email the superheroes.