Students from West Tualatin View Elementary in Portland, Oregon, have been practicing their letter-writing skills in the most precious way! They’ve been corresponding with seniors at a local retirement community. The kids’ pen pals are in their nineties and live at Touchmark in West Hills, down the street from the school. After a year of exchanging messages, the students finally got to meet their new friends face-to-face. KATU reports that the school recently organized a visit with the retirement community.
“We’ve just been writing notes to our pen pals and finally now we get to meet them which is really cool because we never really know what they look like until now, and we never knew what they sound like or any other attributes like how they act or anything,” said third-grader Lydia Chen.
Meanwhile, it was just as much fun for the seniors as it was for the students. Local resident Ethel Henry, 95, told the news outlet that she considered the pen pals her new grandkids.
“It’s exciting, it really is,” she said. “I only have one grandchild and one great-grandchild, and I need lots of them so this is the opportunity to have a lot more.”
Heidi Judge, who works at the retirement community, thinks that the pen pal program made a huge difference in the lives of senior residents.
“We here at Touchmark believe in intergenerational activities, and our residents who live here, they’re in their nineties,” she said. “Through Covid, over the last few years, they haven’t gotten to interact with children.”
She added that, after getting to know the students through their letters, her residents were, “so excited, so eager to see these kids.”
Teachers at West Tualatin View are hoping to continue the program next year.
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