Elf, Purdue Basketball, Coach Painter, & Me

Purdue University's promos for their annual food drive night were Elf themed this year and there was a series of hilarious videos using basketball player Caleb Furst, Head Basketball Coach Matt Painter, and Athletic Director Mike Bobinski.

Locals were charmed and so was CBS who picked up the series and shared them all on Twitter. Check this compilation video out - it's really funny.

The food drive was a huge success and 14,091 pounds of foods (10,839 meals) was collected for Food Finders of Lafayette. 

Purdue is in my hometown so I grew up cheering for the Boilermakers. My grandfather was a professor here, my parents are Purdue grads, and I did undergrad and graduate work at Purdue. But my Bachelors and my Masters degrees are both from the University of Illinois. I do root for Purdue but not when they play my alma mater.

My classroom here in Boilermaker land was decorated in Fighting Illini orange and blue, but the high school my students would be going to had the same colors so most people did not think anything of it. The only thing that gave my allegiance away were small things like my Illinois trash can (a gift from some of my Illinois students one year) that now resides in my sewing room.

And, since the kids called me "Mrs. I.," I just said the trash can was really for ME because it had a big ol' letter I on it. The kids were (mostly) good with that but a few of the savvier ones would look at me and go, "Uh huh... sure, Mrs. I."

Things were good until one year August rolled around and when I got my new class list of students, the name, "---- Painter" was on it. One of Coach Painter's kids was going to be in my classroom. Oh, my! What would he think of all that orange and blue? He would not be so easily fooled! 

Coach Painter was a very good parent, and he made time to come to school assemblies, concerts, plays, and parent teacher conferences despite his busy schedule. I will never forget the first time he stepped through my classroom door for parent/teacher conferences. He paused, put his hands on his hips and surveyed the room, then grinned at me and sat down.

The source of that grin? He shared that his grandfather had been a professor at the University of Illinois and as a kid, he'd spent a lot of time visiting them and had developed a fondness for the school himself. Inwardly I breathed a sigh of relief and we settled into his child's conference.

I've bumped into Coach Painter a time or two around town and have been surprised that he remembers me.  We catch up a bit and it's good to hear how his child is doing.

Well done, Purdue, on collecting so much food for Food Finders. Between that food drive and LUM's Jubilee Christmas, Christmas will be merrier for a lot of people this holiday season.

Boiler up!

No Christmas Card of the Day - I didn't get any yesterday! Hopefully I'll get some at Church today. Stay 'tooned!