Sag Harbor Student Interview

File this one under "awwwww" and thanks Catte for dropping this in my mailbox

From Hamptons.com

Talk Show Guest Bon Jovi

The latest installment of the on-going "talk show" "I Love This Town" was a bit unusual in that the interview took place "on location." Fourth grader Isabel Peters wrote to rock star Jon Bon Jovi, telling him about the talk show, the name of which was inspired by the song of the same title, written by Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora. She, along with Kindergarten teacher Nina Landi invited him to participate. In her letter Isabel mentioned that this year's theme is all about character and being good citizens of Sag Harbor and the world, and that her parents had told her that he is a giving and generous person and he would fit right in with the theme. As a result of the letter Bon Jovi agreed to be interviewed from his home by Isabel, Landi, and the other talk show host, teaching assistant Paula Krzyzewski.

Besides answering traditional questions about his preferences (color blue, history, biographies, pizza with toppings, chocolate chip cookies, football, Finding Nemo and R2D2, among others) Bon Jovi told the students about the importance of working hard in school. He also focused on writing, mentioning that he writes every day, even when he's having a difficult time coming up with ideas. When that happens he might write about something as simple as what he did the previous day - these snippets can often become part of a bigger piece of writing. The important thing is to exercise your brain by writing.

This ties in very nicely with Writing Workshop, a daily part of the English Language Arts curriculum. The other aspect of the interview that correlated so well with what the Sag Harbor Elementary School is doing is the concept of 'what one little person can do'. Bon Jovi emphasized that it doesn't matter whether it's a small lemonade stand, donating food to a food bank or building homes for impoverished families (his foundation has built 140 homes during the past three years), helping others makes an important difference in this world.

The students and faculty alike were thrilled to have Jon Bon Jovi 'visit' our school and share what he loves about this town.

I had a cute mental picture of Jon curled up with his youngest, with a plate of warm cookies and Nemo on the big-screen.

Then, because I'm a bit twisted that way, I can totally hear Richie in my head saying (eyebrows waggling up and down) "Hello, name's Bruce...  What's a coupla nice bites like you doing out so late?"

~ Hath

As an aside, my mother-in-law is getting a stern talking-to for not sending me this information when it happened lol  She calls me if she sees him around -- usually days later in an 'oh by the way' conversation -- but she missed the boat on this one.  She clearly needs to go back to Stalker School.