Zink the Zebra teaches Towson Brownies to zero in on diversity

When the first and second-grade members of Immaculate Conception's Brownie Group 1246 began a project on diversity, they learned an important message from of all things, a zebra.

The Towson school youngsters, who range in age from six to eight years old, read the book "Zink the Zebra" which tells the tale of a zebra born with spots instead of stripes. The book conveys the hurt Zink feels when the other animals shy away from her because they consider her "different."

The book was written by Kelly Weil (1982-1993), a girl who "like any other, loved friends, family, books, swimming, animals and computers - except at age 11, she lost her battle with cancer." Evelyn Cox, an Immaculate Conception parishioner and leader of group 1246 along with Pam Stewart, said she feels the 17 group members have learned a valuable lesson by reading the book and then participating in their own project.

"I think the girls realized that changes are not only physical but emotional," said Mrs. Cox, who teaches at Perry Hall High School. "Especially when they start forming their little groups, I think it's good for them to know that they should try to be inclusive.

One way the girls learned about friendship, tolerance, and acceptance was to create "sunshine baskets" for the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Pediatric Oncology Center. The girls broke into groups of three and brainstormed about what items they thought young patients or their parents might want or need, especially for overnight stays.

They then packaged items such as flashlights, lotion, nail files and toys into baskets which were picked up by Betsy Merrill, a director of development for the center, who also gave a talk to the group. For 6-year-old Alexandra Cox, participating in the project taught her the value of tolerance. "It's not nice to make fun of other people because they're different," she said.

Her older sister Katherine, 8, said she felt sad that Kelly lost her life to cancer. "I thought the book had a very good lesson because it taught kids to be kinder to other people because they are different and not to be mean or excluded them," she said.

She said making the baskets made her feel "very good." "And we said a guardian angel prayer for all the people who have cancer," she added. In addition to the diversity project, the Brownies also adopted a platoon for Christmas, joining with other Immaculate Conception Scout groups to send more than 300 Christmas cards. In February, Group 1246 sent Valentine goodie bags to the groups. The Brownies also have an annual cookie drive, which benefits the Springfield Hospital center in Sykesville.

Mrs. Cox said she thinks doing a variety of projects exposes the students to may ways of volunteering. "The girls are very fortunate, " she said. "They go to a good school and live in a great community and it teaches them to give back."

(The Catholic Review, 6/2003) by Jennifer Williams