New friends, generations apart
Handwritten, old fashioned letters are bringing joy as well as bridging a generation gap between students in Irvine and seniors in Medicine Hat.
Smiles break out and there are murmurs of delight from a group of seniors at Chinook Village as letters from their pen pals at Irvine School arrived this week. They instantly share details of the letters with each other.
One has a brightly coloured note to “smell” the envelope because it has a fragrance. Another envelope boasts brightly coloured decoration and inside are carefully written letters in pencil. Some have colourful drawings that spill out of the envelopes along with the letters.
“Excitement, you learn about them. It’s a very rewarding experience,” said Ethel Barnstable who is a former teacher.
The first letter she received in reply said, “your letter really warmed my heart”, said Barnstable.
She had previously commented enthusiastically on her pen pal’s artwork. He now refers to himself as “the artist” on the envelope’s return address and Barnstable loves this detail.
Jordana Dyck’s Grade 3 class at Irvine School are the pen pals and about three or four hand written letters have already been exchanged in a program that began a few months ago.
Dyck says the day the mail arrives from Chinook Village, usually delivered by hand by a friend, there are cheers in the classroom.
Initially they were focused on getting to know each other and shared basic information.
Student, Shayda Carter wrote about her horses and mentioned that her photo had been in the newspaper. Jordan Karasek said she talked about her hockey team while Reid Stewart explained that he played hockey and he’d had a broken leg.
For others there were lots of questions about where the seniors had gone to school and questions about birthdays, said Ethan Bowey at Chinook Village.
There have been some challenges along the way. Some of the letters the seniors had written were in cursive handwriting.
That was a teaching and learning moment for the students to not only learn to read cursive script but also develop the skill to write like this. That aspect is still in the learning stage, said Dyck.
Student, Jaycee Riess was delighted to discover a photo of his pen pal in the school hall because she had once been a student there. Izahbella Franz was intrigued to discover her pen pal is 90 years old.
Details of how the seniors walked long distances to go to school has made an impression on the students, who are still talking about that.
The students have made use of the opportunity to inform the seniors about things that have changed over the years. One described what a power point presentation is and suggested going to Google Chrome to download some photos.
The whole concept of connecting the students and seniors as pen pals occurred through some brainstorming by Dyck and Melissa Schlenker, lifestyle coordinator at Chinook Village, who have known each other for many years.
Schlenker says she is amazed at the extent of the benefits for those involved and the unlikely connections.
The matching up of pen pals was completely random but there were some remarkable connections. One senior happens to be the great-grandmother of one of the students. Another is a friend of a student’s grandmother’s.
After reading the letters at Chinook on Thursday the seniors immediately put pen to paper in reply.
At this stage both sides only know each other through their letters but that will change next month.
Chinook Village will host their pen pals for pizza party on June 15. About 10 days later the seniors will travel by bus to Irvine and visit the students in their classroom. Students and seniors say they are excited about meeting in person.