A typical morning for a fifth grade student would entail waking up, getting dressed, going to the local bus stop and beginning one's daily activities in the classroom.
However, Tuesday, Nov. 14, was anything but typical for Southern Door Elementary fifth grader Brett Kinnard.
Kinnard was greeted at his house by a limousine carrying Packers linebacker Nick Barnett in anticipation of the "NFL Take a Player to School" day presented by the JCPenney Afterschool Program.
Kinnard greeted Barnett proudly wearing his No. 56 jersey and took him inside his home for breakfast before the two hopped into the limo and left for school.
When arriving at Southern Door, Kinnard introduced Barnett to a fired up group of 500 of his classmates at an assembly in the school gymnasium.
Before a question-and-answer session with the students, Barnett spoke on the importance of education and following one's dreams.
"If I was able to have an NFL player come to my school when I was growing up, I would have been hanging on to every word," said Barnett. "In this community it is very important to relay a positive message to kids and I feel very blessed to have the opportunity to do so."
Kinnard also shared his excitement over his time spent with Barnett. "I was pumped up," he said. "I thought it was really cool to have him come to our school."
The morning concluded with Barnett throwing a couple of passes to Kinnard's fifth grade class in a football activity and taking a class picture.
Very few times does the term "big man on campus" apply to anyone before they hit their teenage years but there was no doubt to anyone at Southern Door Elementary that Brett Kinnard would be the talk of his peers for the remainder of the day.
