Joseph's Page

My name is Joseph David Schriner. I'm nine.

I really like touring America with my family as my Dad runs for president. I get to meet a lot of new friends. And I have several "pen friends."

I formed an "Animal Fact Club" with these pen friends. And in our letters to each other, we exchange interesting animal (or insect) facts or drawings.

Here's one of those facts: Stinkbugs are also known as shield bugs. Some use their flat bodies to 'shield' their young from hungry insects and birds.

One of my favorite traveling stops has been the "Field of Dreams" baseball field, which is cut out of a cornfield in Iowa. I got to play baseball there. I also liked the Lewis & Clark Center in Great Falls, Montana. I had a great time at "Shoots & Ladders Park" at Houghton in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. And I really liked sledding in the Tehachapi Mountains of California.

On the road I help Dad with map reading and engine work. (And sometimes there's a lot of engine work!) I also like campaigning in parades.

Back home in Cleveland, we volunteer at a drop-in center for the homeless. Last year a homeless man named Ray taught me how to play chess. He used to be a professional chess player and still carries a chess case with him now.

We should make room for the homeless in our houses. In Bluffton, Ohio, we took in a homeless man. We still pray for him a lot.

I have a t-shirt my sister Sarah gave me (I'm wearing it in the picture above!) that says: "Life begins when the season starts." I put it on the wall by my bed. I play all kinds of sports, including baseball, basketball and soccer.

When we travel, we try to go to daily Mass and I get to be an altar boy sometimes. When I grow up I'm thinking about being a priest.

-- Joseph