Letters bring smiles to Ron Smith residents
“There is potential for developing the project to involve learners and residents becoming pen friends and possibly visiting each other after Covid-19.”
Holy Rosary School for Girls teacher Barbara Cooper gave Grade Seven learners a project, which saw them write letters to residents of Ron Smith Care Centre. The aim was for the learners to learn how to write and correctly format a friendly letter.
Barbara hoped the letters would provide enjoyment to some of the residents at Rand Aid Association’s Ron Smith Care Centre. Ron Smith Care Centre sent the names of 58 of its residents to Barbara, who tasked the learners to write a personal letter to each of them. Strict Covid-19 protocols were observed in terms of sanitising the girls’ desks, pens, other stationery and envelopes. The letters were delivered to the centre on April 6.
“I delivered the letters to each resident with an Easter chocolate, which everyone enjoyed,” said Debbie Christen, Rand Aid’s manager of recreational services. “I wanted to explain who had written their letter and to witness and record our residents’ reactions. “It was a fascinating project to see 12- and 13-year-olds writing to elderly people, most in their 80s and 90s, as there’s a big generation gap,” Debbie explained.
Debbie added that the youth of today don’t often write letters and are used to texting and using acronyms and emojis to communicate.
“This wonderful project taught them how to compose a letter and how to express themselves using full sentences,” said Debbie.
As some of the centre’s residents do not have contact with young people, they didn’t understand the concept of online versus onsite schooling, so it needed to be explained to them.
“There is potential for developing the project to involve learners and residents becoming pen friends and possibly visiting each other after Covid-19,” said Debbie. “We have several former school teachers who received letters and said it was most interesting to see their responses,” she adds.
Many of the residents commented on the learners’ lovely, neat-print handwriting, which led to the observation that children don’t seem to learn cursive writing these days – they all print.
“This led to residents having memories of how they had to learn cursive writing in their school days and they remembered the pen strokes they had to learn in their writing class,” said Debbie. “Residents were asked if they wanted to read the letter out loud or if they preferred to be read to. “This was a good opportunity for me to assess their reading ability and comprehension. “Many enjoyed reading out loud, some residents spontaneously stated that they were going to write back,” highlighted Debbie.
Some special responses:
Joy Smith from Cedar Park received a letter from Claire Thompson: “What a lovely letter. I know the school well. I love the flowery stationery and the way she decorated the envelope,” said Joy.
In response to the advice written on the envelope (live your life to the fullest), Joy said we are all very lucky to be living in a peaceful time, not having to experience the horrors of war. She said that Ron Smith Care Centre is a beautiful place to live and to be well. Joy enjoys the sunshine and the rain to the fullest whenever she can.
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When she was given the Easter egg, her eyes lit up and she said, “Oh yes, yes, yes! I’m going to enjoy this.”
Then, she nimbly opened the little wrapper and polished off the chocolate in one go. Brian Russell from Woodlands received a letter from Catarina Braga
“How delightful! I will definitely write back, even though I haven’t written an actual letter in a very long time,” said Brian.
Brian was the first person to write back, no doubt having always practised his generation’s letter-writing etiquette of responding to letters promptly.
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