In a world of digital communication, writing letters is not a common activity anymore. For our seniors, putting pen to paper is how they used to communicate. The familiarity of receiving hand-written letters is a comfort for our seniors and a way for them to connect with the community.
This past summer, Yee Hong McNicoll started an intergenerational pen pal program with the children at Markham Christian Community Church. The children of the church sent individual letters to us and our residents responded as a group. In addition to writing, hand drawn pictures and hand-made cards were exchanged as well. Some residents even wrote their own page-long responses to the children.
The purpose of this program is to foster communication, social interaction, artistic exchange and have a chance to learn from and connect across generations. Intergenerational activity is known to have many benefits, such as, giving older adults a sense of purpose, reducing isolation, increase in creativity, improved brain function, emotional bonding and feeling a sense of purpose and engagement.
Although some residents were hesitant at first, many warmed up to the idea and contribute to the group responses. We have had some very enthusiastic replies from both ends and many of our seniors hope to one day be able to meet the children.