Students from Lindsay Mitman's second-grade class at the Octorara Primary Learning Center spent the school year keeping in touch with their new pen pals from Ashbridge Manor Senior Living of Downingtown. After months of letters back and forth, it was time for the two groups to meet in person.
On May 21, the group of senior citizens traveled to the school to meet the children. As a greeting, the youngsters sang songs for the visitors, then the pen pals joined each other to work on a craft and talk before enjoying a snack together. The friends had time to talk and get to know each other in person, with the seniors receiving flowers in painted pots from their pen pals.
"The students started at the beginning of the year, and they really built a relationship with their pen pals," Mitman said. "I think about how much today people text or email. Letter writing is not done so often, so it's pretty cool to expose the children to that, and they got to know people from another generation. They might not have that type of relationship in their lives."
The pen pal connection came from the family connection between Mitman and her mother, Veronique Hadfield, who is the activities director at Ashbridge Manor Senior Living.
"I wanted to reach out to someone (for the project), and she was the first one I thought of," Mitman said.
Mitman selected students for the pen pal project who would be available all year. Numbers were limited to one or two youngsters per senior.
Hadfield herself joined in the project, corresponding with two second-grade pen pals, and was anxious to meet them. "We learned about each other's hobbies; we learned a lot about each other," she said. "It's been fun working with the students. This is a great time to get together and meet the person we've just read about in our letters."
As the seniors and students got to know each other throughout the year, the seniors shared their wealth of experiences with the children, telling them about travel, foreign countries, their own childhood and more.
Berit Brewington is originally from Norway. She told her pen pal about her home country, and the second-graders found the country on a globe.
"He's very well spoken, and he writes beautifully," Brewington said of her pen pal, Christian Hepfer.
"I like to write to people, so I got to write a lot to her," Christian said.
"I'm enjoying my pen pal and his friends. We've discovered we like the same things," Barbara Kaptain said as she worked on a craft with the students. The craft project was also fun for her. "It certainly stretches my lazy mind," she said with a smile.
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