KIDS
Kenneth Holloway and
Josh Litman play with an
electronic game.
Gussie Jackson, Diane
Fleming, Schulze principal,
Jamaica Jaubert, Judith
Dubin, Schulze librarian,
Paula Anne Newman, and
Elizabeth Cohen.
88
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 22, 1991
Hillel students
meet their pen
pals at Schulze
Elementary
School to
celebrate Black
History Month.
SUSAN GRANT
Staff Writer
atch out. There's
an opening," Char-
lie Stuart says,
pointing his finger to show
Anthony. Parrish what he
means. Charlie, 10, hovers
over Anthony's desk as they
focus on the electronic game
cupped in Anthony's hands.
Anthony, 10, punches the
tiny controls while Charlie
tries to guide him through
the game. Even though they
only met a few minutes ago,
the two boys sound like
longtime friends.
Since October, Anthony, a
fifth-grade student at
Schulze Elementary School
in Detroit, and Charlie, a fif-
th-grader at Hillel Day
School, have been pen pals
through the Open
Minds/Open Arms program
jointly sponsored by Hillel
and Schulze. The program
pairs 20 Hillel students with
20 Schulze fifth graders.
"We want to show these
children they can have a
buddy who has a different
background," said Shelly
Goldberg, the Hillel teacher
who coordinates the pro-
gram with help from Laval
Brown of Detroit Public
Schools.
Open Minds/Open Arms
began three years ago and
joined fifth _gradestudents at
Hillel to their peers at Ilene
Elementary School in
Detroit. But when Ilene
closed its doors last year, it
looked like Open Minds/Open
Arms might end, Mrs. Gold-
berg said.
That is until Diane Flem-
ing, Schulze's principal,
heard about Open
Minds/Open Arms and
decided to pick it up. She
turned the program over to
Marilynn Rose, who teaches
a fifth/sixth grade class at
Schulze.
Although the Schulze and
Hillel students had written
to each other a few times
during the school year, and
had, in some cases, even sent
pictures of themselves and
presents to their pen pals,
they had never met.
So when the fifth-graders
at Schulze invited their pen
pals to celebrate Black His-
tory Month, Hillel students
were eager to come.
On the bus ride to Schulze,
Hillel children couldn't stop
talking about meeting their
pen pals. Alana Zaks and
Paula Anne Newman hur-
riedly tried to finish making
friendship bracelets for all
20 pen pals. Meanwhile at
Schulze, three fifth-grade
students stood guard at the
school doors to greet the
United Hebrew School bus.
The shouts of one of the boys
yelling, "They're here!
They're here!" echoed in the
school hallways.
"It was exciting to see each
other," said Jennifer Levine,
10, who played a board game
With her pen pal, Latasha