We are a group of 38 students from 2 third grade classrooms at Collins Elementary School in Grand Rapids, Michigan. We are a school with kindergarten through fourth grade with over 500 students and we are part of a large, growing district of almost 8000 students.

Our city is in the southwestern part of the lower penisula of Michigan and is located at 42.96 North Latitude, 85.56 West Longitude. We are known as the furniture city as Michigan was an important logging state and much of the lumber was floated down the rivers to the furniture factories here. The furniture company named Steelcase is based here and so is the main plant of Amway Industries.

There are many rivers and lakes around our community so water sports and going to the beaches on Lake Michigan are very popular activities here. Our summers are beautiful and we get plenty of snow in the winter to enjoy skiing and other winter activities.

We are looking forward to learning about other communities and participating in this project.

Sincerely,

Students in Mrs. Jewell's and Mrs. Libra's class