New Intergenerational Pen Pal Program Fosters Meaningful (and Socially Distant) Connections
Parks and Recreation and Senior Services have joined forces to offer this new program, which will serve the dual purpose of enhancing the lives of our senior residents with an approved form of socially distant contact, while also introducing the art of letter writing to some of our younger residents.
It has become increasingly difficult for some of our seniors in town to get out of their homes or have meaningful social contact with others. Before the invention of telephones, cars, Facebook or Snap Chat, people would write letters to each other as the main form of communication. The letters would sometimes take days, or even weeks to reach their destination, but the anticipation would be almost as exciting for the letter’s recipient as receiving the letter itself. This new program intends to take advantage of our world slowing down and allows us to reconnect with a generation of residents we might not cross paths with otherwise. Our seniors are part of the great generation that helped create the world around us, and our youth are our great future, using technology to change how we live our lives. By offering this program, we are ‘bridging the generation gap, one letter at time’.
How will the program work? Staff from the Senior Center and Parks and Recreation will collect registration forms from those who wish to participate. Each participant will be paired with a pen pal, and we will attempt to match those with similar interests. Each participant will then write a letter introducing themselves to their pen pal, which should be mailed to the Senior Center, and staff will then mail the letters out to each pen pal.
The pen pal program is open to all East Hartford seniors and students or children of any age. We encourage parents to help your child participate in any way they can, as letters and drawings would be so appreciated by our seniors! This is a fantastic way to make a positive impact in the world during what is a difficult time for many.
For more information or to register, please contact the Senior Center at 860-895-1517, or Sean Dwyer at Parks and Recreation at sdwyer@easthartfordct.gov. Those interested in the program are asked to register by April 24th.