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STORY BY KATIE EVANS• PHOTO ED HONDA•HERALD/REVIEW
HUACHUCA CITY — Biscuit sat atop a quilted pillow in Angela Brown’s fourth-grade classroom at Huachuca City Elementary School.
Biscuit, a stuffed bear that originated at Tanque Verde Elementary School in Tucson, was delivered to Cochise County from Patagonia Elementary School.
Biscuit is steadily making his way through every county in Arizona after a tiring trip in 2001 across the Oregon Trail.
 Ed Honda-Herald/Review Around Arizona with Biscuit the Bear, which originated at Tanque Verde Elementary School in Tucson, and made a stop at Angela Brown's fourth-grade class at Huachuca City School before departing for Duncan. The educational bear allows students to learn about their school, location, wildlife, history, etc., through a questionnaire the students fill out. |
“It’s just a really neat program,” Brown said.
When he arrived at Huachuca City, he showed up with a backpack full of things.
“I was so excited,” Brown said of the day Biscuit arrived. “It was like Christmas.”
In his backpack, for one, was a toothbrush and toothpaste so the students could help keep his teeth clean.
“He’s rather bad about remembering to do that,” said a letter about Biscuit from his originating class, Mrs. Zukowski’s fourth-grade class at Tanque Verde Elementary School.
He also comes with a questionnaire for the class to fill out that provides information about the class, school, city and county he’s visiting.
It covers the geography of the area, special monuments, native plants, wildlife and more.
There also are two disposable cameras sent with Biscuit to allow the class to take pictures of their county.
“I think it’s a pretty original idea,” said Principal Tom Yarborough. “It’s a good lesson for the kids and it makes the world a little smaller for the kids, too.”
Biscuit is very popular, with his time being split between the two fourth-grade classes at the school: Brown’s and Joy Tattrie’s.
“They really kind of like it,” Brown said. “They really like looking at all of the pins.”
On his vest, Biscuit has pins from his travels around the country, which now include one from the Cochise County Superintendent’s Office and a Tombstone Marshall pin.
The vest, however, wasn’t part of Biscuit’s original clothing he was sent away with; he came back with it after travelling the Oregon Trail.
“Along the way, someone made him a vest, and then each stop along the trail attached a pin to show where he had been,” the letter from Mrs. Zukowski’s class read.
And for the fourth-grade students at Huachuca City, he was a very welcome visitor.
“He’s very cute,” said Britney Dyer.
Herald/review reporter Katie Evans can be reached at 515-4611 or by e-mail at katie.evans@svherald.com.
