Trumbull students create Valentine’s Day cards for seniors

TRUMBULL — Students at all nine schools across town made Valentine’s Day cards for senior residents, a project prompted by discussions on a community social media page.

On Friday, Lisa Nuland, a Trumbull school board member, along with members of the town’s Commission on Aging, could be seen sorting the cards at the Trumbull Senior Center.

The effort started last month when Jeffery Kunkel, an administrator for the “Trumbull Helps” Facebook page, shared a post by an Urbana, Ill.based television meteorologist.

The post urged teachers to get students to write Valentine’s Day letters to nursing home residents.

“They will love them and your students learn a lesson about caring for the elders in your town,” WCIA 3 News Meteorologist Jacob Dickey said in the post.

The group contacted Nuland who pitched the idea to the school district’s superintendent, Martin Semmel. Semmel then spread the word to principals.

Nuland said she was surprised when she picked the cards up a few weeks later.

“I took a little T.J. Maxx bag with me thinking I was gonna collect a couple envelopes,” Nuland said. “They handed me printer boxes.”

Town officials estimate students made about 1,000 cards, a total that includes letters from Harding High School in Bridgeport and youth organizations that include the local Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. They will deliver the cards to places catering to seniors that include the Trumbull Senior Center, the Stern Village affordable housing complex and Spring Meadows by Monarch assisted living center.

Ned Gerard/Hearst Connecticut Media Students from Trumbull Public Schools have created hundreds on hand-made cards that will be delivered to seniors around town on Valentine’s Day, seen here in Trumbull, Feb. 10.

Superintendent of Schools Martin Semmel stands next to a table full of Valentine’s Day cards as he speaks during an interview at the Trumbull Senior Center, in Trumbull, Feb. 10.