'Pooh' event a major coup for Bashaw

Asher Abelson, Kenton Purvis, Octavious Rhodes and Allison Cruz, students in Linda Scheider’s kindergarten class at William H. Bashaw Elementary, gathered around as Kristin Cone, a senior from Lakewood Ranch High School brought out her guinea pig, Topher.

“You have to be gentle with him. He’s very small and scared,” Cone said as the students reached out to pet him.

Topher appeared at Bashaw Elementary as part of the “Winnie the Pooh and Shakespeare Too” senior English class project in which seniors from Lakewood Ranch High write children’s books and visit Bashaw to read them to the students.

More than 300 seniors read to Bashaw students May 4.

Cone paired with fellow student Camryn Laney to write “Topher’s Mission,” and they thrilled the students by bringing the story’s inspiration with them.

The story resonated with kindergarten student Fiona Williams.

“If I had a guinea pig, I would name it Fluffy and it would be white,” Williams said.

Lakewood Ranch students Jasen Burulia, Scott Jones, Anthony Luh and Ryan Greene wrote about dinosaurs, and after they read the book to the students, the students organized a dinosaur bowling game, where they would roll the ball toward plastic dinosaurs to knock them down.

“I think (the event) is about getting us to learn how to write for people of all ages,” Jones said.