{"id":32779,"date":"2023-03-16T14:50:02","date_gmt":"2023-03-16T18:50:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=32779"},"modified":"2023-03-16T14:50:04","modified_gmt":"2023-03-16T18:50:04","slug":"seniors-and-students-form-close-bonds-through-letter-writing-campaign","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/seniors-and-students-form-close-bonds-through-letter-writing-campaign\/","title":{"rendered":"Seniors and students form close bonds through letter-writing campaign"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Letter writing for younger generations is becoming something of a lost art, but older Aurora residents are helping some of the youngest find their skills, while forging bonds in the process, through a partnership between St. Jerome Catholic Elementary School and Kingsway Place Retirement Residence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Recently, the school and the retirement community were awash in red and pink construction paper as students volleyed personalized greetings to residents living just around the corner from the school and, according to Kingsway, the seniors are loving it just as much as the youngsters.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just been so heartwarming,\u201d says Valerie Bennett, Kingsway\u2019s Director of Community Relations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The impromptu program got underway when Kingsway learned the St. Jerome community was interested in corresponding with local seniors. Soon, the Principal asked for a list of residents\u2019 names and interests to find some unique fits that spanned the generations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Soon, students from Junior Kindergarten all the way to Grade 8 were getting in on the act.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe gave the cards to our residents and they were thrilled with the little messages beside their name, and one student responded with, \u2018I love puzzles, too,\u2019 relating to their common interest,\u201d says Bennett. \u201cWe have a gentleman here who golfs, so I put that on the list, and the student wrote back and said, \u2018I like to golf, too, and my favourite is the seven-iron.\u2019 One resident owned a pharmaceutical company, so the student made the card with a picture of a cough syrup bottle with grapes on the side, and inside it said, \u2018I hear you sell drugs to people!\u2019 which made them laugh!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe had long letters from the Grade 7s that were just a joy. We have a lady who worked for the Toronto Blue Jays for over 20 years, so of course her correspondence was, \u2018Did you ever meet the players?\u2019 I went down to help her with her correspondence, and she said, \u2018I have pictures of myself with the Blue Jays, so I had to include copies [of the photos with the letter].\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around the holiday season, cards from students were sent in envelopes containing chocolates and a candy cane. Residents welcomed the extra treats and set to work on their replies without delay. Some like to get their replies out quickly, while others like to mull over their response with fellow residents, comparing notes along the way.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOne lady is very artistic, so I took pictures of some of her artwork for her reply,\u201d says Bennett. \u201cOne lady put about five bookmarks to the girls who had written to her. It\u2019s a lot of work on both ends [but very rewarding]. When I took them to St. Jerome, the Principal took me to a wall where she had put up every one of our residents\u2019 profiles with their pictures and I was absolutely blown away. She said kids go by and say, \u2018that\u2019s my lady\u2019 or \u2018that\u2019s my guy,\u2019 relating to the profiles on the wall.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOn Valentine\u2019s Day, one gentleman who didn\u2019t have any children, said \u2018Never in my whole life have I ever received anything like this.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As the program continues, Bennett says not only does it keep the residents engaged but it helps students learn how to write a letter, address an envelope, and even practice their cursive, skills that are not in as everyday a use as they once were.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe effort that was put into their cards, the decoration, the messages inside \u2013 and then from the school point, the Grade 8s are helping them write notes \u2013 and now St. Jerome wants to do a face-to-face in June at the school!\u201d says Bennett with enthusiasm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Brock Weir
Editor
Local Journalism Initiative Reporter<\/strong><\/p>\n\r\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Letter writing for younger generations is becoming something of a lost art, but older Aurora residents are helping some of the youngest find their skills, while forging bonds in the process, through a partnership between St. Jerome Catholic Elementary School and Kingsway Place Retirement Residence. Recently, the school and the retirement community were awash in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":32780,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32779","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-general_news","category-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/2023-03-16-04.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-8wH","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-23 22:38:57","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32779","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32779"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32779\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32780"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32779"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32779"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32779"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}