MONROE — When Dori Culnane told her first-grade students to send Flat Stanley paper dolls to family and friends around the country, she expected to hear from grandmas, aunts and cousins.
She did.
Students turned in piles of photos of smiling relatives posing with Flat Stanley dolls.
One photo, however, surprised her.
Warren Buffett, the richest man in the world, is standing in front of what appears to be a closet, holding 7-year-old Tyler Newsome’s Flat Stanley. Buffett’s autograph is scribbled in black marker across the top of the photo.
“I was just shocked,” Culnane said, thumbing through photos in her classroom at Frank Wagner Elementary School in Monroe. “First-graders say all sorts of things; so when I kept hearing that the richest man got Flat Stanley, I just kept going, ‘OK. OK.’ And then when he did, I thought, ‘Fantastic.’ “
When Tyler first saw the photo of white-haired Buffett, he told his mom, “I didn’t know he was so old.”
He was excited, but not quite as surprised as his teacher.
Tyler’s grandma, Carol Grant, has been best friends with Lili Carlson since they were eighth-Âgraders in Omaha, Neb. Carlson’s sister, Astrid Menks, married Buffett in 2006.
Grant, a Woodinville seamstress, has been to Buffett’s house in Omaha and met his wife many times. However, Buffett, 77, has always been working during her visits.
“I haven’t met Warren,” she said. “Flat Stanley is more privileged than I am. … He just comes home from work, sits at his computer and goes to bed. So he’s not a very exciting man. I guess he’s very boring.”
Flat Stanley is the main character of several children’s books by Jeff Brown. According to the story, Stanley was a regular boy until a bulletin board fell and squashed him. Taking advantage of his new shape, he mailed himself to visit a friend in California.
Kids in schools around the world read about Flat Stanley, then make their own Flat Stanley paper dolls. They mail them to friends, who are asked to photograph Flat Stanley with local landmarks and mail the doll and photos back.
When Tyler came home from school with Flat Stanley in his backpack, his mom, Kim Newsome, knew where to send him. She mailed Flat Stanley — decorated by Tyler with brown construction paper suspenders and a blue hockey stick — to her mom, who mailed the package to Lili Carlson.
Stanley spent a day at a Berkshire Hathaway stockholders meeting in Omaha, where he met Buffett, the chief executive of the investment company, and Ken Warby, who designed and raced the fastest boat in the world. Warby holds the world water speed record.
Tyler’s mom and teacher were thrilled by the photos of Flat Stanley with Buffett and Warby. The kids in his class, however, were most impressed by a photo of Flat Stanley looking over a nest of baby birds on a windowsill at the home of Carlson’s daughter.
Tyler plans to keep his Flat Stanley photos in a special binder. When he grows up he wants to be rich like Buffett and give his money away.
“He gets to sit all day,” Tyler said.
This was Culnane’s first time teaching about Flat Stanley. The character helped her students learn about mail, geography and different professions, from being a mail carrier to being a billionaire stock investor.
When she begins teaching second grade next year, she plans to incorporate Flat Stanley into her lesson plans.
Culnane is excited to see where the Flat Stanleys of the future will go and what they will experience, but she has a feeling none will meet anyone quite as famous at Warren Buffett.
“It will definitely be hard to top getting Flat Stanley from the richest man in the world,” she said.
Reporter Kaitlin Manry: 425-339-3292 or kmanry@heraldnet.com.
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