As a multi-organ transplant recipient living during a pandemic, our son Patrick is looking at spending the summer (or longer) at home. He’s a very social only child who loves adventure and exploring new places, which makes this a difficult and lonely time for him.
Since Patrick loves travel and books, we thought it would be fun to start a Flat Stanley project to help Patrick stay connected with the world, even while having to stay home.
The premise is simple. Flat Stanley (based on the book by the same name) travels by mail all over the world, sending pictures and letters home. We’re mailing a physical Flat Stanley to friends and family. But while our paper Stanley’s off traveling, he might as well visit you virtually as well.
If you’d like Stanley to pay a visit to you, here’s what you do.
1) Print off a copy of our Flat Stanley:
Printable of Patrick’s Flat Stanley (PDF File)
or print and color your own Flat Stanley here.
Official Flat Stanley Template
Black and White Flat Stanley with front and back in boy and girl.
2) Take Stanley off on an adventure. Take pictures with Stanley, write a letter describing his trip with you, collect memorabilia if you’d like.
3) Reach out to one of Patrick’s parents, and we’ll get you info about how to to send your adventure to Patrick. (For his privacy, we aren’t going to post any further contact information here.)
We’ll be tracking our Stanley’s adventures on this map, if you’d like to follow along to see where he goes.
If you want to send pictures of particular interest to Patrick, he loves all kinds of cars, everything Disney, zoos, children’s museums, animals, vehicles of every kind, and rollercoasters. We enjoy professional hockey and are season ticket holders of the Utah Grizzlies. Patrick enjoys playing adaptive soccer, riding his bike, watching Disney Junior and PBS Kids, and writing with his collection of hundreds of pens. We are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and enjoy visiting our church’s temples and historic sites when we travel. Patrick also loves learning about new things on YouTube, so if you visit someplace offering virtual tours that we can watch, that’s an added bonus.
Please be safe. Patrick also loves reading about other people, especially kids, so if you just want to share how you’re quarantining at home like us, that’s ok, too.
Because of his brain injury, he struggles with language and writing and can be very nervous about speaking or writing to others. He is unlikely to write back, though we’ll try to share and comment on the map.
You can learn more about Flat Stanley on the official Flat Stanley Books website and about the original Flat Stanley project here.
Patrick Hoopes 