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Showing some love and appreciation with pen pal letters

Stephanie Barnes from the Expressway Family Centre has once again come up with an extraordinary idea to help the residents of the Bow Valley Villa feel less isolated in this world where isolation has seemed to become the norm: pen pals.

Stephanie Barnes from the Expressway Family Centre has once again come up with an extraordinary idea to help the residents of the Bow Valley Villa feel less isolated in this world where isolation has seemed to become the norm: pen pals.

That is right, Barnes has decided to ask kids of all ages to reach out in letters, pictures, stories, etc. to the residents in a pen pal program.

The idea is to have the children write whatever they desire and send it to Barnes by the 15th of each month so they can be quarantined before being delivered to the residents, who will then send a letter back to the child that they receive the original letter from.

“It is a great opportunity for interaction, writing skills and something to look forward to each month because who doesn’t like to get fun mail?” Barnes exclaims.

The actual idea came through inspiration from her four-year-old son. He had asked if he could write a letter to his grandma and because of that, Barnes decided it would be a great idea for the community children and the residents as well.

“I am hoping it can be done monthly, stop over the summer and pick back up in the school year” Barnes explains.

So far for March 15 there are 17 children signed up and two school classes which guarantees every resident a letter. One of the classes is a pre-kindergarten class that will be doing a group letter and the other class is a Grade 1 class that just celebrated 100 days of school, so they are going to ask each resident what it is like to be 100 years old.

For kids who want to become involved in this wonderful idea, all they need to do is to get in touch with Barnes via the Expressway Family Centre Facebook page and she will help set up all the details.