Chew Bear Gives Thanks!

During the weeks that followed his birthday, Chew Bear and his class started to become very excited for the upcoming holidays. So much so that Chew Bear barely had time to think about his past! He did have a chance to leaf through “The Invisible Island” and noticed something strange….on the very last page, which had been blank before, there was now a picture of some shiny gold arrows pointing away from the outline of a city. Chew Bear didn’t know how he could have missed that before, and it definitely didn’t make sense, but because he was so busy, he didn’t really give it much thought!

Chew Bear dressed up as a pilot for Halloween and went trick-or-treating with his pals. He filled an entire pillow case to the brim with goodies and candy – what fun it was! After Halloween, Ms. Mulberry began to teach the class about The First Thanksgiving, and how the Native Americans and Pilgrims put aside their differences and came together that day, giving thanks for the good things that had come over the past year, and sharing their harvest.  They then made turkeys by tracing their hands/paws on construction paper and cutting them out. They glued on colorful feathers, orange beaks and googley eyes.

After the turkeys were completed, Ms. Mulberry asked the students to write five things they were thankful for on the back. Chew Bear wrote:

1. Chaka and Chacha
2. My house
3. My book
4. My friends
5. The shoes on my feet

After he finished, Chew Bear looked over his list and again realized just how wonderful his life was. But then he thought about all of those children with no shoes and decided that this year for Thanksgiving, he was going to do something about that. Chew Bear went up to Ms. Mulberry’s desk and discussed his plans to hold a shoe drive at the school and then donate the collected shoes to children in need on Thanksgiving. Ms. Mulberry thought this was a fantastic idea and got the whole class on board, and then let Chew Bear take charge.

Over the next few days Chew Bear and his classmates painted signs announcing the shoe drive, and put together big bins to hold all of the collected shoes. When the shoe drive finally began on the Monday before Thanksgiving, Chew Bear was so excited! Student after student lined up to toss their old and new shoes into the bins. After just the first day the boxes were filled to the brim with shoes! They were going to need more boxes.

When the drive was finally over, there were 9 bins filled with slightly used children’s shoes. Chew Bear and his parents packed the boxes into a rental van and drove them to the soup kitchen he had recently volunteered at. There he handed out the shoes to every child who came in for a hot Thanksgiving meal. It was amazing to see the smiles on the children’s faces when they put the shoes on their feet. It warmed Chew Bears heart, and made his hair stand on end.

 
That night, after Chew Bear, Chacha and Chaka had a feast of mashed potatoes, stuffing, corn, and pie, Chew Bear went up to his room to read his book again. He flipped to the very back to check out the mysterious new page again. When he looked at the page, Chew Bear was astonished to see that it had changed again – there was more to it! Now the arrows lead to a boat, on the banks of some water. At first, Chew Bear was confused, but then his body started to do its “tingly thing” and he knew a vision was coming. Chew Bear closed his eyes and saw a vision of him handing out shoes to children. With each pair he gave, the image in the book grew larger; until finally he could make out that it was a map.

Chew Bears eyes sprang open at once and he knew in his gut that this final page in the book was the key to his past. It was the map to Stikii Island…….

To be continued………