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Cleve Hill elementary students have their reading buddy back
By John J. Hopkins Times
Because of a local business's generosity, students at Cleveland Hill Elementary School were overjoyed this week to welcome back a fuzzy friend to their library after he had to take an unscheduled leave of absence.
Winnie the Pooh, a four-foot tall stuffed animal, has his own special space in the school's library. His makeshift den is a popular area for the younger elementary students to gather when they study and read stories.
Students thought the worst when they arrived in the library last month and found Winnie missing.
"The kids love him," School Librarian Mrs. Janice Kelly said. "They were very upset when he disappeared."
The pooh bear's disappearance was linked to events that began last summer, and ended with a happy ending, thanks to a local dry-cleaner.
Although most bears hibernate in the winter, Winnie's time to hibernate is the summer, when the students are on recess. Winnie substitutes the quiet Cleveland Hill library for his home in the Hundred Acre Woods.
Unfortunately, last summer's renovations at the school took their toll on Winnie.
While he slumbered away the summer, construction crews replaced the building's windows. For a brief period, there was only plywood covering the library's open windows, and the plywood didn't keep out all of the weather.
Winnie's soft "fur" attracted mildew from the humidity and a late summer rain storm.
As a result, the weather left this "willy, nilly, silly ole bear" musty, crusty and a little dusty.
School employees noticed that there was a bit of a gamey odor in the library at the start of the academic year, but they didn't suspect Winnie. However, by November, they determined that Winnie the Pooh had become "Winnie the Phew," and was in need of a cleaning.
"We had him treated a couple of times by the custodian," said Kelly. "But that didn't cure him."
Wayne Weiser, the elementary school's custodian for 24 years, said that he used a special carpet cleaner on Winnie. The non-allergenic formula is used in hospitals and other institutions, and was purchased by the district because the custodial staff expected mildew problems from the open windows.
Weiser said that the cleaning substance did its job well on carpeting and rugs affected by mildew. Unfortunately for Winnie, "the mildew was deeper than we could handle," Weiser explained.
In early February, Lisa Mecklenburg, the plant manager at Massaro Cleaners, 3761 Harlem Road, received a letter from Winnie, explaining the situation.
"It's a faint musty smell, which I don't mind," Winnie admitted, "but those sitting with me prefer I have a bath."
"My heart went out to him," Mecklenburg said about reading the letter. "I knew we had the equipment to handle it."
Mecklenburg sent Dennis Kocz, one of her dry cleaners, to pick up Winnie. Mecklenburg said that they have cleaned stuffed animals before, but nothing quite as big as Winnie.
"I didn't know what to expect when we went to pick him up," Mecklenburg said. "I told Dennis to take a bigger truck, just in case."
Kocz said he wasn't daunted by the task, and thought it would be fun to see how good of a job he could do to bring Winnie back to his old self. He used a blend of a neutralizing carpet cleaner called "Odex" and "regular laundry detergent" to clean Winnie by hand.
"Then I let him sit to dry for three days," Kocz said. "When he was dry, I had to brush him out, because his "fur" was matted down and it needed to be fluffed out."
In the mean time, Cleveland Hill's younger students were eager for Winnie's return.
"The kids are going to be so happy to see him," Kelly said Monday when she and Weiser went to Massaro to bring the beloved pooh bear home.
Kelly said that Winnie inspired the library staff to begin this academic year with a bear-themed program for the younger students that included books based on Winnie the Pooh, Paddington and the Berenstain Bears.
"We read to the kindergartners a lot," Kelly said. "At their age, we focus more on literature appreciation and good citizenship."
Winnie's ordeal showed administrators, staff and students at Cleveland Hill that they have good citizens at Massaro Cleaners.
"They were here immediately," Weiser said. "It was so nice of them to do this for us and the community."
Mecklenburg said she was glad to help out Winnie and the school. "The kids have their buddy and reading partner back," she said.
Now, once again, Winnie the Pooh is back in the Cleveland Hill Elementary School library, surrounded by little friends as he daydreams about playing with Christopher Robin and devouring the next pot of "hunny."
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