Touring O.C. by mail

NEWPORT BEACH ? Johana Bocancea got her picture taken in Ensenada this year ? and, ironically, she didn’t even have to go there.

The Eastbluff Elementary School third-grader was one of 18 classmates this spring who participated in a “Flat Stanley” project in which students send letters to other places asking for information. Johana’s assignment was to research the city of Newport Beach, and she sent a letter to Mayor Don Webb along with a photo of herself.

On Thursday, Webb was among the Orange County mayors who visited Kathy Smith’s third-grade class while students gave PowerPoint presentations. When Johana finished her presentation, Webb had a surprise for her: a photo of himself and Ensenada Mayor César Mancillas Amador, both holding Johana’s picture around the time of April’s Newport to Ensenada sailboat race.

“You got to participate in Newport Beach being a sister city,” he told her as the classroom applauded.

Earlier this year, Smith’s students embarked on a unit to better acquaint themselves with the world surrounding their backyards. Each of the 18 children in the class selected the name of one city in Orange County and set out to find more information.

“It really gives them a better feeling of what Orange County is like,” Smith said. “Some of them have never left Newport Beach.”

To find the facts, the class engaged in “Flat Stanley” projects ? an education tool created in Canada in 1995 and now popular in more than 40 countries around the world. The program was inspired by a series of children’s books about a boy named Stanley, flattened by a bulletin board, whose parents mail him around the world in search of adventures.

In a “Flat Stanley” project, students send paper cutouts of the character to different locations, with their own heads superimposed on top of the figure. In return, they hope to receive the cutout with some mementos of its trip. Several mayors responded to Smith’s class with photos, pins and other city souvenirs; San Clemente Mayor G. Wayne Eggleston even sent back his own snapshot on top of the cutout.

Garden Grove Mayor Bill Dalton, who visited Smith’s room on Thursday, said he was surprised to get an envelope from Corona del Mar ? which, in terms of wealth and demographics, is a world removed from much of his own city.

“It’s refreshing to find that kids from other cities want to find out about other cities ? not just their own, but surrounding ones,” he said.dpt.16-mayor-2-CPhotoInfo7F1S1LUA20060616j0xbalncDON LEACH / DAILY PILOT(LA)”Flat Stanley” cutouts of mayors of Orange County cities cover desks in Kathy Smith’s classroom at Eastbluff Elementary. dpt.16-mayor-1-BPhotoInfo7F1S1ILB20060616j0xba0ncDON LEACH / DAILY PILOT(LA)Garden Grove Mayor Bill Dalton gives Kayleen Nguyen a card after her PowerPoint presentation about the mayor’s city.