The holiday spirit was in the air Wednesday at the state Capitol when Gov. Matt Blunt stood among Mexico’s Eugene Field Accelerated School second-graders to decorate the Capitol's Christmas tree.
Nearly everyone has memories of decorating their family's Christmas tree, but this is an experience of a lifetime and the students embraced it with the enthusiasm and curiosity typical of a second-grader.
Envision 500 handmade ornaments placed in the care of second-graders to put on this special tree.
These students handled the responsibility with grace and pride as they placed the handmade ornaments on the Christmas tree in front of Blunt's office in the Capitol at Jefferson City.
One of the highlights of the day was having the governor welcome them to the Capitol.
Anticipation filled the hallway while the children waited for the governor to make his appearance. While standing in front of his office and holding their ornaments they sang songs and waited patiently and somewhat quietly stood in front of the office for 10-15 minutes. Wondering why he wasn't coming out of his office, a small voice in the crowd said "Maybe he is shy."
Blunt greeted the children and the students sang Christmas carols to the governor and his wife, Melanie. After applauding the students for their caroling Blunt said, "I want to thank you for coming to decorate our tree." He also invited them to have cookies when they finished. He then proceeded to place ornaments on the tree with the children.
Once the decorating began, the excitement of the children could not be contained. Following instructions from their teachers they each took two ornaments at a time and with help from teachers and parent volunteers the ornament-bare tree was quickly transformed into a sparkling Christmas tree which everyone who visits the Capitol will have the opportunity to enjoy.
Two teachers at the school, Mary Beardslee, Title 1 reading/language arts specialist and Michelle Whanger, second grade teacher took on the challenge of pursuing the opportunity for the students to participate in this Christmas tradition at the Capitol. They applied three years ago then for two years in a row. This was their lucky year. The school was first runner-up last year.
As a rule one classroom is extended this honor, but Whanger and Beardslee asked if all their second-graders could participate. The school received permission to send all second grade classes.
As a result, at 8:35 a.m. Wednesday, 80 second-graders, volunteers and teachers, with their lunch in hand, loaded two buses to make the trip to Jefferson City.
In preparation, Beardslee's son, Keith Beardslee, who works at the Capitol, informed them the tree is large. So, Whanger and Beardslee combined their ideas to decide how to tackle the project. They enlisted the help of art teacher Georganna Tomkins. Tomkins made plans for each grade level to make different types of ornaments. The kindergartners dyed foil paper chains, the first-graders made snowmen popsicle sticks, the third-graders painted ball ornaments, the fourth-graders created abstract plastic ribbon ornaments, and the fifth-graders created tinfoil ornaments.
The second-graders made cinnamon ornaments. The students cut them out with cookie cutters and let them dry during the Thanksgiving weekend. Then during art classes they let their creative abilities take over and decorated the cookies with glitter glue. They made more than 12 dozen cinnamon ornaments.
Beardslee took the majority of the ornaments to Jefferson City last week and the remainder were taken Wednesday.
The children seemed impressed with the Capitol, commenting on the various items in the museum hallway, the stairs and big rooms. Courtesy of Rep. Steve Hobbs they even had their own hearing room for the day in which to store their coats and lunch. This is also where they ate their lunch.
Whanger was pleased with the children's behavior and reaction to the events of the day. They were told in advance by Whanger they had been selected for a distinctive honor – decorating the Capitol tree. She told them they would be representing Mexico and Eugene Field. "It was a lot of fun and the kids were truly excited and felt special."
She added "I thought they all did a very nice job." The excitement on the children's faces was worth the trip for those who went along for the ride.
"This will be a trip they will remember throughout their school days," added Whanger. To be truthful, the teachers and volunteers seemed to be enjoying themselves, as well.
In addition to decorating the tree, the children visited the Secretary of State's Office where they were told about the State Seal and had the honor of impressing the seal on a piece of paper explaining the seal.
They also toured the Governor's Office and other parts of the Capitol. Keith Beardslee told them a little about the office including the fact the Missouri Governor's Office is bigger than the Oval Office in the White House. Also, shown to the children was a painting on the wall of  Eugene Field, their school's namesake. Beardslee, who is deputy press secretary for the governor, fielded questions from the students including: "How old is the governor?"; "How old and big is the Capitol?"; "How many people work there?"; and many questions about the governor.
When asked their favorite thing about the trip, the students’responses included "Seeing the governor," "Decorating the tree," and of course "eating cookies" in the Capitol.