The mascot of the St. Louis Cardinals Baseball Team, Fredbird, dropped by Fredericktown Intermediate School (FIS) on November 12, 2009.

In anticipation of the event, the school was decorated with poster, banners, balloons,  signs, trivia and craft made images of the mascot. Children also wore something red just for the visit. Principal Mary Moyers said, “We are the most decorated school we can be.”

Accompanying the mascot was Joseph “Smokey Joe” Cunningham. He is a retired Cardinals ball player and has made his way into the Cardinals Hall of Fame museum.  He has also played for the Chicago White Sox  and Washington Senators.

http://mlb.mlb.com/stats/historical/individual_stats_player.jsp?playerID=112944&c_id=stl

Cunningham said he brought a message from the entire St. Louis Baseball Organization; Don’t do drugs!

 Cunningham said he has been traveling around visiting schools with this program for 24 years. It was his idea originally and now shares the program with two others. This was the first time Cunningham and Fredbird had been at FIS. Cunningham said the Intermediate School was one of the top five most decorated schools they’ve been in.

Fredbird then stole the show by entertaining the children with his antics and fun. Cunningham said Fredbird “Likes to kiss and dance with teachers.” Fredbird was just a bit unruly while entertaining the children, but still behaved. Fredbird statistics are somewhat different than Cunningham. According to the trivia board posted at FIS Fredbird was born in 1979, is six foot three inches tall, throws “everything,” bats-(scared of them) and has a standing count of lots and lots of heads ‘beaked.’

Cunningham said the St. Louis Cardinals have won more pennants (except for the New York Yankees) than any other baseball team. He went on to explain how coaches and the captain of a team work together to get the job done. He called Principal Moyers the Captain of the team at the school and the teachers coaches. Cunningham said he gave the students the permission to call the Principal “Skipper” and teachers, the “Coaches”  for the rest of the week.

The students also saw video presentations and were challenged with questions about what three things should they be doing to be good students;

1-Don’t do drugs

2-Stay in school and get an education.

3-Exercise and get involved in sports of some kind to stay active.

The program is call “Doin’ It Right!”

Prizes were also given out during the event.