Two Fairbanks graduates, Kate Ruff and Danielle Hoover, helped publish a former Fairbanks middle school teacher’s children’s book, Swim, Cutie Swim. Sue Lowery, who passed away in 2018, wrote the story in 2003 after a family trip to Chincoteague Island, Virginia.
(Photo submitted)
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A children’s book, written by a former Fairbanks teacher, got published, with help from two former students.
Kate Ruff and Danielle Hoover, both Panther alumni, helped finish and publish the late Sue Lowery’s children’s book, Swim, Cutie Swim, which the former middle school teacher began writing after a trip in 2003.
Kathy Lowery, a family member and fellow educator, told the district’s board of education recently that getting the book published has been more than a year in the making.
“I asked all my publishing friends and they all wanted $15,000 or $20,000 and we thought, ‘there’s got to be another way,’” Lowery said. “So we brainstormed and we thought, ‘Aha, why don’t we go see Adham (Superintendent Schirg) and see if we can find a couple of students that would be willing to help.”
Once connected with the students, Lowery, her husband Jim and his brother, Joe – Sue’s husband – offered support to the students who they remained in contact with during the work on the book.
Ruff and Hoover assisted the Lowery family by reinterpreting the story and adding illustrations.
“What we knew, was the story was 20 years old and it needed to be updated and, kind of, reinvented to get published,” Lowery said. She added the book is dedicated to its author, who passed away in 2018.
The Lowerys also enlisted the help Sue’s friend and children’s author, Lois Szymanski, who has written over 28 children’s books and lives in Maryland. Lowery said the author helped the team through several drafts of the piece, which was finished last year.
“In the summer of 2022, Kate and Danielle finished the final versions of Swim, Cutie Swim. They did just a fantastic job really updating the book and making it come alive for us,” Lowery said. “They helped us make every single decision.”
Both students are graduates of the class of 2022.
Hoover is currently a student at the Savannah College of Art and Design where she studies sequential art. She created the illustrations for the book. Ruff currently attends the Ohio State University at Marion and is majoring in biology for pre-health sciences. She reimagined the story and reworked the original text.
The story was inspired by Sue Lowery’s trip to Chincoteague Island in Virginia in 2003 for the Wild Pony Roundup and Swim.
Ponies have been on the island for longer than the United States has been a country and the annual pony swim is nearly a century old. Visitors come every year in July to watch the wild animals swim the Assateague Channel, from Assateague Island (where they live all year) to Chincoteague Island, on Virginia’s northeastern island bordering Maryland.
“Every July, they have a pony swim and they heard the ponies up and then they have an auction and people buy them and it’s all for the firefighters that live in the (Virginia) area,” Lowery said. “Joe and Sue have 10 grandchildren and I believe every single one of them got a pony at one point in time. But this is the story of the very first pony.”
That first horse was purchased for the Lowerys’ granddaughter.
According to the description on the book, “This is the story of Cutie, a beautiful bay filly who was born wild on the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge in Virginia. Rounded up at the world famous Pony Penning in 2003, Cutie was purchased by Sue and Joe Lowery on their first trip to the island. Follow Cutie on a wonderful adventure that leads her across the island, to a swim across the bay and into the auction ring. Then, Cutie is loaded onto a trailer for the long ride across the country, where her life would be forever changed in a beautiful way.”
“As a former educator, I can tell you, it was an absolute delight to work with these two young ladies,” Lowery said. “They are talented, they are bright, they’re responsible, they were accountable, and they were committed to the project.”
Schirg echoed Lowery’s statements, noting how impressive the accomplishment is for all involved.
“This is going to be an example that we’re going to be able to hold up and say, ‘Hey, these are the types of things we want students to be able to create and build and have passion around. You can’t get a more real life example than this,” Schirg said. “It was a very impressive project…and the collaboration with two young people to do it was very, very impressive.”
Swim, Cutie Swim is now available online for purchase.