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GREENSBORO — Sisters Cameron Allen , 9, and Kelsey Payne , 4, can relate to the Obama girls.

Like Malia Obama, 10 , Kelsey has allergies.

And Kelsey and Cameron take dance lessons, like Malia and Sasha, 7.

They’ve experienced a big move, too, coming to the Triad two years ago from Concord.

So, it was no surprise when Cameron asked to send the president’s daughters a letter encouraging them in their move after the November election.

“I told them that it will be OK when they move, and I told them everything would be fine, and they would make new friends,” said Cameron, a fourth grader at Millis Road Elementary School.

They were surprised to get a letter back — from first lady Michelle Obama  — March 20.

“I dropped the phone,” Cameron said of her reaction at news they’d received a letter. She was at her great grandmother’s  house across town when her mom read the letter to her over the phone. “I was shocked.”

The first lady thanked the girls for taking the time to write and said Malia and Sasha were settling into their surroundings and routines. She also encouraged Cameron and Kelsey to be active in their communities.

Their mom is very proud of her girls.

“I remember being a little girl and being interested in politics like Cameron,” Kim Payne  said.

She told the girls that presidents receive a lot of mail and it would be a long time — if ever — before they heard back.

She should know. She sent a letter to former President Ronald Reagan, but never got a response.

Cameron wrote the letter by hand, collaborating with Kelsey, who attends Shining Light Academy. Kelsey can’t form her letters as well, Cameron said.

Cameron shared Michelle Obama’s letter with her class, and now some of her classmates want to write their own.
 

Contact E.A. Seagraves at 883-4422, Ext. 241, or elizabeth.seagraves@news-record.com