Huntley preschool's Jesus doll ready for road trip

The students gently helped place him in the box, lovingly preparing him for his trip.

The cargo -- a fuzzy soft stuffed Jesus -- was precious to them, and they wanted to make sure he was safe on his journey.

It was a little hard to let him go. Since school started, the 3- and 4-year-olds had been carrying him around with them on the playground, into chapel and into their classroom at Faith Community Preschool in Huntley. He was always there to comfort anyone who was having a hard day, to help a star student shine or to help a new face feel a little more comfortable starting school.

So before they could let him go, they had to pack some special things along with him -- pictures showing their fun times together, a passport so he could show where he'd been while he was away from then, and a scrapbook to help chronicle his journey.

The students then sent the Jesus doll off on a cross-country tour of 11 Christian preschools, hoping to spread his love to other students just like them.

He took off at the beginning of this month, and is expected to arrive back in Huntley sometime in April.

The traveling Jesus' first stop will be Alaska.

The hope is that the preschool students in Alaska will warmly greet Faith Community's Jesus, and welcome them into their preschool. Then, they're hoping that the students there will send an e-mail detailing his adventures and add pictures of his time in Alaska to their scrapbook.

"Hopefully they'll do some fun things with him, like stick him in a snow bank and take his picture," Preschool Director Michelle Sullivan said. "We hope to learn a lot about the places and people that Jesus visits on his long journey."

The preschool has kept a Jesus doll for its own use in Huntley, and then they're sending the other one to Alaska, California, Oregon, Colorado, Montana, Minnesota, Oklahoma, New Hampshire, Ohio and Florida.

Teachers will be showing the students that while Jesus is with them at home in Huntley, he's also with students everywhere.

The teachers will reinforce the idea that Jesus is everywhere by reading his e-mails about his adventures aloud to students, and posting anything they get back in the mail from him on the school's community board.

"At this age it can be hard to understand that Jesus is everywhere. They'll see he's with students all over," she said. "We'll get to share him. They're very excited about that."