The thought of people taking the time to write letters to other people they don’t know for the sole reason of brightening their day makes me happy. I enjoy a good random act of kindness, but I wouldn’t have even heard of an organization called “Love For Our Elders” if it wasn’t for eight-grade teacher Fran Haynes at Northpoint Expeditionary Learning Academy and her students, who were inspired by the idea of writing to seniors, and decided to take it on as a class project.
The organization was founded in 2013 by Jacob Cramer, who started volunteering at a senior living community as a teenager after his grandpa died. He saw the loneliness of the residents he visited and started writing letters to them to brighten their days. Now there are more than 50,000 volunteers across 70 countries working “to fight loneliness with love.” People can nominate an elder to receive letters or answer letter requests. The rules are simple: Legible, large-print, and handwritten. Embrace creativity. Be kind and thoughtful. No glitter.
Ms. Haynes and I exchanged a few emails, and I stopped by her class one afternoon to thank the students for picking this project and shared a little about the folks who would be receiving their letters. They had some good questions for me about who lives at assisted and senior living and told me about the grandparents in their lives and older family members they had lost.
On the drive back to work, I thought about how hard it is for me to take time to sit down and write a letter, much less multiple letters. I wondered if kids raised in an age of electronics and cell phones would pull this off.
I didn’t have to wonder long. A few days later, I was holding a large envelope filled with more than two dozen wonderfully illustrated letters. Some were decorated with drawings of animals or favorite characters, some had fill-in-the-blank questions, and all of them had sweet notes sharing a little about their lives while asking the letter recipient about themselves and what is important to them. The kindness shone through each card I read.
“I’m 14 years old and some of my favorite hobbies are football, video games, and drawing. Do you like art or street art? I wanted to write to you and see how you are doing and making sure you know you’re loved by all, even strangers.”
“I’m currently in 8th grade and close to graduating middle school and going into 9th grade soon. I was wondering how middle school was for you? Were you excited to graduate and go on to high school? I know I sure am.”
Even though one of the rules of the website is not to expect a letter back because they “want to ensure recipients aren’t burdened by feeling obligated or unable to respond,” it was hard to imagine not writing at least a couple notes back to Ms. Haynes’ students. Luckily, I knew a few seniors who might be up to the task.
One of the women worked ahead and showed up with a few letters already written for the students. The group dug into the pile of letters, reading them and smiling at some of the artwork and questions. Armed with coffee and good penmanship, they started answering letters and reminiscing as they wrote. At one point, we pondered whether kids these days could read cursive handwriting, but decided it might make a good challenge for students to try to figure it out, almost like a secret code from the past they’d have to unlock.
I packed up the replies and dropped them off. Ms. Haynes said the students were surprised and happy to receive letters back. They found some parallels between their lives and their 90-year-old pen pals. Getting a letter back even brought tears to one student’s eyes, which made me think we need to start a group called “Love For Our Youngers” and write letters to students, letting them know (to borrow the words of a wise eighth-grader) that they are “loved by all, even strangers.”