Parents’ lunchbox messages reach more than their own children
As students headed home last week after closing days of school, Levi Berry, pre-K student in the Village Schools at Lower Elementary, went home with a unique reminder of his year.
He carried home a binder filled with personalized napkins which had been placed every day in his lunch box by his parents Kellie and Ryan Berry.
The hand drawn messages were carefully crafted by the couple and followed themes of encouragement and motivation along with scriptures and reminders of special days. Christmas, Thanksgiving, Valentine’s Day and other holidays were prominent in their drawings.
Thumbing through the volume of pages assembled in a booklet by his teachers, Dusti Kelly and Tanda Pettit, there were messages for all occasions. Some noted were “Jesus Loves You,” “Yahoo, It’s Friday,” “The Lord is Good to All,” “A Friend Loveth at all Times.” Cat and dog characters talking to each other were included in some of the drawings. Other humor was included.
All the children in Levi’s class benefitted from his daily napkins “As soon as he got to the cafeteria he would open his lunch box, take out his napkin and everyone was anxious to see it,” said Mrs. Kelly. She and Mrs. Pettit would rescue the napkin before it became soiled and take it back to the classroom to save for Eli. “Mr. and Mrs. Berry were very consistent – every day. We have all looked forward every day to Eli’s napkin,” his teachers said.
Mrs. Berry said she and her husband have enjoyed making the napkins and are glad that all the children in his classroom have benefitted from their efforts. Their son Truett, who is eight, also gets a special napkin in his lunch box on occasions.
Eli will enter kindergarten at Lower and Truett third grade at Middle Elementary when they begin the next school year.
