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Sunday, December 29, 2002

First published Aug. 29, 2002
By Bob Donaldson

JuliAnna Kunzler, 5, arrives for her first day of school at the new South Butler Primary Center, which combined grades K through 3 from the district's five elementary schools that closed at the end of the previous school year. Donaldson: "I've covered the first day of school somewhere for close to three decades and have never made the perfect first-day-of-school picture -- until JuliAnna Kunzler walked past me. Here she was, this vision from a Norman Rockwell painting, walking purposefully down the hall alone, cradling her snow-white sweater on her arm and pulling her Scooby-Doo book bag on wheels. Her white hat with its blue ribbons were a perfect match for her blue-and-white dress, white socks and shined black shoes. "The image presented itself when JuliAnna walked from a darker part of the hall into the brighter light from the intersecting hall. Click. Well, actually, click-click-click-click-click-click. ... I couldn't take my finger off the shutter release. "I thought, 'Geez, how can I ever top this next year?' " The story.