“I liked being able to talk to people and ask them how their lives were different when they were my age.”

“It was fun to hang out with people that were older than me, not just my grandparents.”

“It was fun to learn more about them while they learned about me through the letters.”

These are some of the students’ reactions to the pen pal program between St. John, Wauwatosa, Wis., and residents at St. Camillus, a nearby senior living community, which culminated in a joint event at St. Camillus. As Brett Fuhrmann, a teacher at St. John, explains, a grandmother of a St. John’s preschooler is the event coordinator for St. Camillus and suggested the pen pal program. Fuhrmann began the project with his fifth-grade writing students in the fall of 2023.

“It was exciting to have an opportunity for the kids to have an intergenerational activity like this,” says Fuhrmann. “Seniors can share their life experiences, historical perspectives, and traditions with students through unique personal stories. This was a great way to increase students’ social skills via letter writing, which has become a thing of the past for too many people.”

Another thing of the past? Cursive. “Some of my students looked at it like it was ancient Greek,” notes Fuhrmann, “so I needed to ‘translate’ for them and read aloud some of the letter responses.”

In the new year, St. John’s first- and second-graders also joined the pen pal program. All three grades participated in the meet-and-greet event at St. Camillus in May, which included yard games, music, and ice cream sundaes. Mostly, though, students just enjoyed the time spent getting to talk to their pen pal in person.

As Kennedy, a student at St. John, expressed, “When I first met my pen pal, I got to see their joy and excitement, and they got to see mine.”

Following the event, the reaction from St. Camillus was just as positive. “I can’t even tell you how much fun all of the St. Camillus pen pals had yesterday,” wrote Laura Barker, the event coordinator at St. Camillus. “Everyone is still talking about it today.”

Author: FIC
Volume 111, Number 10
Issue: October 2024