SANDPOINT — Three Bonner County teens have a pen pal in a high place.

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW, Washington, D.C., to be exact.

President Barack Obama personally replied to letters the teens wrote him as part of a scholastic exercise that coincided with his address to the nation’s school kids.

“Thanks for the note,” Obama said in one of the handwritten replies. “Work hard, act right, and dream big dreams. I’m rooting for you!”

When the teens sent the letters, they were being held at Bonner County Juvenile Detention.

Bonner County Justice Services Director Debbie Stallcup recalled coming into her office earlier this month and hearing a voice mail asking her to call the White House switchboard.

“That’s when I thought it was a joke,” said Stallcup.

But she quickly discovered it was no prank when she reached Phil Droege, director of the White House’s Office of Records Management. Droege wanted to make sure Obama’s replies would make it back to the teens.

The correspondence came on elegant yet modest White House stationary.

Stallcup said the president apparently personally replies to three letters a week.

“I was kind of shocked,” admits Tim Shanks, a 16-year-old from Blanchard who received one of the replies.

Shanks said his letter took issue with the part of Obama’s address which favored high school diplomas over general equivalency diplomas.

“I actually was not that nice,” admits Shanks. “At that time I was trying to get a GED.”

Shanks, who was being detained on a drug test violation at the time he wrote the president, has since had a change of heart and is enrolled in the West Bonner County School District’s Priest River Education Program. He plans to graduate and study film at North Idaho College.

Jason Bullock, a junior at Lake Pend Oreille High School in Sandpoint, said he sympathized with the part of the president’s address which dealt with the struggles Obama endured growing up without a father and his determination to stay in school.

“That’s the thing that caught me,” said Bullock, who was being held on an assault charge which has since been adjudicated.

Bullock plans to graduate high school and enter the carpentry trade.

The writing exercise was proposed by instructor Lori Stone.

“This doesn’t happen every day,” noted Pat Talarizadeh, a juvenile probation officer who works with Bullock and Shanks.

Shanks is keeping his reply in a safe. Bullock plans on framing his.

“It’s something I hope they always remember,” said Stallcup.