Teacher mails snowman to Florida so students can see snow

Snow is something they don’t see a whole lot of in Florida, but lucky for some kids in the Sunshine State, there was enough in Kentucky to share.

What began as a lesson about weather and snow turned into a hands-on class project overnight. A former Kentucky school teacher who now educates kids in Florida discovered that only two of her students had ever seen snow. This gave her an idea, and she gave her sister in Kentucky a call.

“So I said, I want you to make me a snowman, and I want you to overnight him to me and see if he can make it to the school —  because I want these children in Florida to see snow,” said special education teacher Robin Hughes.

At first, her sister Amber Estes wasn’t so sure.

“So I said to her, we haven’t had a measurable amount of snow, I was making every excuse in the world, and I accepted the challenge because I knew that I would never have to live up to it,” said Estes.

After early January’s big snow came down, Estes thought the idea could be possible. She went into her yard and created Lucky — a Kentucky snowman who got his name in the hopes that he’d arrive in Florida safely.

“So we put him inside the packaging, we wrapped him up in that foil, and we put ice packs in, we sealed him up, there was Styrofoam around the box. Off he went down to the local UPS store,” said Estes.

“So then we went to the classroom and had the kids open it and just the pure joy of seeing that snowman…to me, that’s what teaching is about,” said Hughes.

Lucky is still a huge hit in the classroom and the school. Hughes says she’ll keep getting creative in the classroom because she believes students learn to think outside the box.

“Anything I can do as a teacher to bring joy to the classroom and also teach them a little something, then it makes it all worth it. And my sister was just the greatest partner in crime to help me do that so he was perfect,” said Hughes.

This Earth Day, Lucky will make another transition. After he’s melted, the water will go into a new plant to keep his memory alive and teach students how everything comes full circle.

By Rachel Richardson, LEX18.