Bridging the generation gap with letters

Josie Smith and Madison Springhetti, along with their classmates in Maria Garbisch’s third-grade class at Dunwiddie Elementary School  in Port Washington, are finding a new way to connect with others.

They — along with Jen Melius’ 4-year-old preschool class at Community Learning Center — have pen pals. But unlike most pen pals of the past, their new friends aren’t from their peer group but instead are members of the Port Washington Senior Center.

“I love it,” Madison said. “I like that we can connect to people even if we don’t see them. It’s very special. It (writing letters) is like having a conversation but it’s on paper.

“It just brings a smile to their faces, and when we get a letter from them we get a smile on our face.”

Josie agreed, saying, “They’re like a new friend on paper. Getting to know someone older than you is kind of fun. You can ask them what do they still like and things from their childhood. It’s fun to try to make connections and find out what they think.

“There’s so much you can learn from them.”

She has several things in common with her pen pal, Josie said, including the fact they both have blue eyes and love to read.

Her pen pal, Madison said, is a retired teacher who “is really cool.” 

It’s not just the children who are enjoying their newfound friendships and their letter-writing skills. So, too, are their pen pals, many of whom are longtime letter writers.

“It’s just fun connecting with the kids. Being at home now, we don’t get to do that,” Rosemary Marciniak said. “I can remember when I was a kid, I had a pen pal and it was a lot of fun.

“This has been so much fun, too. It’s interesting to see what they want to know about.”

Her pen pals asked about her pets and were surprised to learn she had a parakeet, asking many questions about the bird. 

The youngsters have decorated the envelopes, and Barb Roob said that was as impressive as the letters themselves.

“It’s such a small thing but it’s such a nice touch,” she said. “They share so much of themselves, and they’re such sweet kids. They write extensive letters, and their printing is so nice and clear.”

Pat Kindschy said she’s impressed by the letters she’s received from her pen pals, noting one was three pages.

“The writing, the spelling, the paragraphs — I am impressed,” she said. “They are so interesting and interested in us. They want to know about me, and they want me to know about them. I think it’s really good for people to have those connections.

“They’re articulate, and they seem to be really invested in this program. It’s been great fun.”

Lynn Barber said she hopes the pen pal program will spark a love of writing in the youngsters and draw them away from their computers and video games for a while.

“I think they’re learning some good writing skills,” she said. 

Writing letters is a new experience for the class in many ways, but it’s one that the class has embraced, Garbisch said.

“The kids look forward to it,” she said. “They realize their letters matter to someone else, that their opinions matter. They’ve discovered that even though there’s an age gap, there are things they have in common.”

That intergenerational connection “is the part I love,” Garbisch said. “I feel they (the seniors) have lived through so much, and being able to share little bits of their lives with others — think what we can learn.”

And in the age of technology, when screens reign supreme, the youngsters have learned how to write letters.

“They’re learning not just the skill but the art of writing letters,” Garbisch said.

The pen pal program is the brainchild of Jamie Mercer, the children’s librarian at the Niederkorn Library in Port, who reached out to the school district last September to see how the library could better serve them.

“I thought that with winter coming up, everyone needs a little cheer, especially with Covid,” Mercer said. “I wondered how can I connect the senior center and kids, and I thought this would be a great way to reach out.”

Nine seniors volunteered to participate in the project, eight of whom are each paired with two third-graders and the other with the preschool class offered by the Port Washington-Saukville School District at Community Learning Center.

Every month, the classes and their pen pals attend an online storytime led by Mercer at the library. They then talk about the books and chat with the seniors.

The youngsters then write their letters in the classroom, discussing the book that was read and anything else that might come up.

The results, Mercer said, are beyond what she had hoped.

The youngest students, she said, see their pen pal, Beverly Schinker, as a grandmother figure who shares photos of her grandkids as well as looks for ways to get to know them.

“They’re so excited about everything and happy,” Schinker said. “We all need that now.”

The third-graders “are really interested in the seniors,” Mercer said. “They love to know what they’ve read and about their lives. They really have a lot to say.”

The seniors drop off their letters at the library, and Mercer brings them to the schools. They’re dedicated to the students, so much so that Mercer noted one of the pen pals who is currently out of state is emailing her letters to the youngsters. 

Garbisch said her students are so excited when they see the letters on her desk that they have a hard time sitting still until they get them.

The youngsters keep their letters in the writing folders, she said, and many bring them home to share with their parents. “This is very, very personal to each student,” she said. “I’ll see them pull the letters out and read them again and again.”

During the storytimes, Garbisch said, her students are “glued to the screen” as they listen to the book and look for their pen pals.

The connection between the seniors and the students is especially important today, since schools are closed to the public and field trips are on hold during the pandemic, she added.

“This is a virtual field trip, in a way,” Garbisch said.

And while there were initially plans to have the seniors and students meet at a picnic in May, the coronavirus has put an end to that plan.

“It would have been amazing,” Garbisch said. “But that’s the whole idea of a pen pal — you don’t always see them.”