Who knew ducks could cause so much drama?

Meet Super Duck! And here's his story...


It's fund-raising time at the girls' school. If the girls sell one item, then they could get a duck on a lanyard. Today, the girls finally brought in their duck coupons. I spent all morning working in Marika's classroom and when I finally poked my head out to find her when her lunch was over, I saw her bawling. Apparently, she had just gotten her duck a few minutes earlier, only to suddenly realize that Super Duck was gone!

Now, when you're 5 and have been looking forward to this duck for the entire week, it's practically the end of the world! When you're the parent who shelled out a chunk of money to buy fund-raising items so your child can have this silly duck, it's pretty annoying.

So Super Duck fell off and had disappeared. PTA (running the fundraiser) refused to give her a replacement, saying kids were losing them all the time because they keep pulling on them and since they have to buy the ducks, they couldn't afford to replace everybody's. Marika is, of course, still weeping while I'm getting more and more disgruntled. Of course we know that if somebody found the duck, they probably kept it. Just a couple of days ago, some kid ripped the duck off the lanyard of their friend (apparently, ducks are trouble!) - that's just not cool!

As a last resort, we stopped by the room where the morning kindergarteners were waiting to pick-up - we asked the yard monitor to ask if anybody had found Super Duck. I could not BELIEVE it when a young fellow stood up and said, "I think I may have found him..." and pulled out Super Duck! He actually gave it back to Marika!

When I went back to tell PTA (and another yard monitor had offered to give Marika her own duck tomorrow, that was so sweet), PTA made a big deal of this and said they would bring special attention to this kid, because NOBODY had ever turned in a duck they found before. Hopefully, by rewarding this kind of behavior, it'll promote more of the same. He'll probably get a special prize (and be praised on the intercom) from the principal - to top things off, the first yard monitor had already asked his teacher to give him a prize.

So, Miss Marika was appeased and happy. I told her to never forget an act of kindness and that this young man displayed good moral character and was very honest. I'm sure if she ever finds a duck, she'll do her best to make sure it goes back to its owner. =)

Here's Mika's choice of ducks...

Needless to say, Super Duck is not allowed to go back to school.