Thanks to the efforts of one young girl, students at Waukesha's Rose Glen School have been carrying on a correspondence with their fellow students at the elementary school XXV Aprile (April 25) in Casale Monferrato, a city of about 39,000 in the northwestern Italian region of Piemonte.

Valentina Degiovanni, who currently lives in Waukesha with her family, has been a student at both schools and suggested the idea. Since early 2003, students have exchanged letters, emails, photos and CD-ROMs with information about their schools.

While the exchange has garnered little media attention here, Casale's newspaper (to which this writer has contributed) Il Monferrato has written a number of updates, including the latest in its June 18, 2004 issue.

According to the article, teachers Alessandra Aceto, in Casale, and Susan Wall, Kate Kennedy and Carol Trovato, in Waukesha, plan to continue to program during the next school year.