In December of 2014 a letter from Austin Montessori School was addressed to the 
Mountain Shadows Elementary II class. Specifically, “To a Girl Who Writes in a Diary.”
Catherine Spangler was the only girl in the class at the time, and a pen-pal friendship began.
The letter was from Anastacia in Nicholas Pippins’ Upper Elementary class and was filled with lots of questions of her soon-to-be new friend, “What do you like to do in your free time? What do you look like? Do you play sports? “
As it turns out, Anastacia and Catherine have a lot in common. Both like math, being outside, wearing flip flops, and in their free time they like to spend time with friends, “She was born in Austin and I was born in Anchorage. We have different pets, and because she lives in Texas, her family can drive to Mexico which I think is so cool,” shared Catherine.
Using only school mailing addresses, the pen pals take summers off from corresponding, so there’s always anticipation of when the next letter will come. How rare in a world of immediate response.
“I know it’s old fashioned to mail and wait for a letter to arrive, when you can text or email, so I have to practice patience,” said Catherine. “But it’s exciting when it comes!”
The two haven’t exchanged actual photos, but have shared self-portraits and exchange birthday cards.
“Maybe one day she will ask for my phone number and we can face time or something like that!”