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SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2011

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THE REGION
Over this power lunch, reading and mentoring
Everybody Wins! DC partners professionals with students
JOHN KELLY'S WASHINGTON
BY

That baby elephant may have gone West

J IMM P HILLIPS

hey say that elephants never forget. If thats true, theres an elephant at the Reid Park Zoo in Tucson who just might remember living in Bladensburg 40 years ago. Or maybe not. Heres the deal: After last weeks column on Georges Pet Shop, Answer Man heard from Dan Koehl, who maintains an online database of the worlds captive elephants from his home in, of all places, Sweden. Answer Man had mentioned that an elephant from Georges was sold to Jetts Petting Zoo. Dan noticed that Jetts sold an elephant to the Tucson zoo. Could it be the same elephant? Maybe. You will recall that Georges had two baby elephants over the years. One died while rented out to a GOP convention. One was sold to Jetts. Jetts sold an elephant to the Arizona zoo in 1967. Was that the elephant George Flemming sold to Jetts? Hard to say. Record-keeping was sketchy back then. Answer Man was unable to reach anyone

COURTESY OF REID PARK ZOO

Connie, an Asian elephant, was welcomed in 1968 to Reid Park Zoo in Tucson. Did she once grace Georges Pet Shop in Bladensburg?

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connected with Jetts Petting Zoo, which furnished animals for events across the country. It may no longer be in business. Georges kids told Answer Man he didnt name his elephants. The one in Tucson, now about 43 years old, is named Connie. For the past 36 years, she has been cared for by zoo handler Gale Ferrick. She told Answer Man that the Tucson zoo is getting a herd of African elephants and thus Connie must move. Early next year, she will go to the San Diego Zoo, which has a special area for older Asian elephants. Shes very special in my heart, and she always will be, said Gale, who is retiring in December. Like elephants, apparently many children never forget. Herbert W. Childs of Stafford said he almost jumped out of his chair when he read the column. In the early-1960s, when I was a grade schooler living on Volta Avenue in Bladensburg, Georges Pet Shop was a frequently visited destination of choice, he wrote. I have for many years told people about the amazing variety of animals to be found at the shop, and have been frequently told in response that I must have been imagining the whole thing, and that there is no possible way that Georges had the variety of animals that I described. I vividly remember encountering at least one lion in the deepest recesses of the shop in a strong steel cage. . . . Maybe one of the best things of all about Georges Pet Shop was that my sister and I, and my friends, spent hours at a time examining everything in the cool and quiet shop, and we always felt welcome there. Bowies Francis Dennis Murphy grew up in Cheverly. We used to go to the Saturday matinee at the Cheverly Theatre, then go to the Burger Chef next

door, followed by a visit to Georges, he wrote. Loved the tapir. Visits to Georges made the Tarzan movies come to life. We knew all the animals firsthand, and the smell like the monkey house on a July day. Laurels Roberta Fancher lived in Bladensburg in 1973 and 1974 and briefly considered purchasing a coati Georges was selling for $300. The animal looked cute, but now I know it would not have been a wise purchase.

Two by two?
Heres another mystery Answer Man can use your help with. Laurels Debi Smith remembers reading in the early 1960s about a woman who spent many years single-handedly building a biblical-type ark from scrap wood at the Bladensburg Marina. The articles included photos of this remarkable vessel, but I never saw it for myself, Debi wrote. She remembers hearing that on its maiden voyage, the vessel sank not far from the marina. Answer Mans quick perusal of The Posts archives didnt turn up anything. Can any readers give him more to go on?

ost Tuesdays this school year, John McIlveen will stroll half a block from his office at the American Institute for Cancer Research to Ross Elementary School in the Dupont Circle neighborhood, where hell join third-grader Max Akridge in the game worlds of Commander Toad or Wimpy Kid Greg Heffley. McIlveen is in his 10th year as a mentor at Ross as part of the Everybody Wins! DCs Power Lunch program. The program, which exists at 11 elementary schools in the District, Arlington County and Silver Spring, gives working professionals the opportunity to meet with a selected student once a week during the childs lunch hour. The program attracts people from 125 organizations. The list of current mentors includes U.S. senators the late Sen. Edward M. Kennedy (D-Mass.) was a longtime participant chief executives, lawyers and staff member of The Washington Post. Although high-powered people frequently join the program, it is open to people from staff assistant on up, said Mary Salander, executive director of Everybody Wins! DC. To the child, its just somebody who wants to come and spend time with him each week, she said. The children arent interested so much in what the persons title is. Everybody Wins! DC got off the ground in 1995 after thenSen. James Jeffords (R-Vt.) heard about the success of the original Everybody Wins! program in New York, which began in 1991. Jeffords and other senators began reading to children at Robert Brent Elementary in Southwest that spring. Everybody Wins! DC has programs at 38 area Title I schools this year, which serve more than 4,000 children. Title I

schools have large low-income student populations. Everybody Wins! DC was one of four area organizations to receive a grant from Washington Post Charities, a McCormick Foundation Fund that aims to support D.C. area nonprofit organizations with programs focused on increasing educational opportunities for disadvantaged children. The organization plans to use its $25,000 grant for the Ross Power Lunch program. Eighty students will be able to participate. McIlveen, now 52, has mentored four students and has worked with each of them through their entire time at Ross. You see them grow and develop over the years, he said. One of McIlveens colleagues who also volunteers as a mentor once told a student that McIlveen is called Grandpa around the office because of his gray hair. For the next three years, kids from the school would call out Hey, Grandpa! as I passed by on my way to work, McIlveen said. School administrators and teachers will refer a student to the program if they think he or she needs a hand in some way, such as students who are learning English as a second language, those who read below grade level, or those who would benefit from regular interaction with a caring role model, Salander said.

This is the second year McIlveen has mentored 8-year-old Max. Although Akridge is in third grade, he reads at a higher grade level, McIlveen said. Max is great. He looks forward to our time together each week, McIlveen said. If I have to reschedule our reading time for another day, he will interrogate me about where I was or why I couldnt come in. McIlveen said its important to find the right way to reach out to the kids and get the most out of their interaction. Ive lucked out with Max, he said. Well talk a little bit about how hes doing, but he always wants to get down to business and start reading. Sometimes hell want books that are simple, and sometimes hell want to read these complex chapter books. Everybody Wins! DC touts two independent studies by the U.S. Department of Education and Loyola University that have found that the Power Lunch program is one of very few programs documented to effectively impact low-income students in reading comprehension, motivation, achievement, as well as overall academic performance, classroom behavior, self-confidence and social skills.
phillipsj@washpost.com For more information, visit washingtonpostcharities.com.

Childrens Hospital
Speaking of giving, theres no better time than now to donate to our annual fundraising campaign for Childrens National Medical Center. Your tax-deductible gift will go to the uncompensated-care fund, which pays the medical bills of underinsured children. Please send a check or money order (payable to Childrens Hospital) to Washington Post Campaign, P.O. Box 17390, Baltimore, Md., 21297-1390. To donate online, go to washingtonpost.com/childrens hospital.
kellyj@washpost.com

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