Red Bird Flies
Away with Top Earnings 
Red Bird Mission
School holds a special distinction among Box Tops schools. Red Bird
has reached the maximum earnings for clipping Box Tops, $20,000 per
year, more often than any other school.
This small school
with around 250 students, tucked away in the lush mountains of Kentucky,
has been a part of Box Tops since the very beginning. According to Red
Bird’s principal, Bob Ferguson, Box Tops earnings have been used
to purchase any number of items over the years: field trips, playground
equipment, teaching supplies, puppets and graphing calculators, for
example. Due to Red Bird’s remotelocation, reliable transportation
for the students is essential. Each year, $5,000 in Box Tops earnings
is set aside for transportation costs alone. This year’s earnings
are earmarked to purchase lockers for every student.
 Sarah
Thompson has been a Math and English teacher at Red Bird since 1995,
but stepped into her role as BoxTops coordinator in 2001. What is Sarah’s
biggest challenge as the coordinator? "Keeping up with the quantity
of Box Tops," laughs Sarah. She depends on volunteers, students
- even her parents - to help her bundle the shipments.
Other Box Tops schools
continually ask, "How do you do it?" The answer, says Sarah,
isn’t that simple. Red Bird is a private mission school, a project
of the United Methodist Church, providing quality education to students
in this rural, Appalachian community. Members of United Methodist congregations
all across the country clip Box Tops and send them to Red Bird.
It’s true that
Red Bird’s situation is unique. However, it serves to demonstrate
that when people work together, they can realize the incredible potential
of Box Tops. Schools can enlist the help of local churches, high schools,
community service groups, retirement homes or university organizations
to support their earnings goals.
When asked what
one message each would like to offer other coordinators, Sarah states,
"Box Tops is a valuable program." Principal Ferguson adds,
"It helps out a lot -- our school and our students."
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The
following words were spoken by the late Red Skelton on his television
program as he related the story of his teacher, Mr. Laswell, who felt
his students had come to think of the Pledge of Allegiance as merely
something to recite in class each day.