They’re all seniors—one set is just readying for college while the other is basking in their golden years. Both are building a strong friendship. In one North Carolina high school, students have become pen pals with senior citizens, cultivated by easy friendships that surprised everyone.
The program is called Senior2Senior, an initiative that was inspired by the popular Letters to Santa program. But Davie County High School English teacher Ashley Snider wanted to create that same energy during the spring semester and so thought up a program to encourage teens to trade their texts for traditional letters in a way that bridges generational gaps for a good cause.
The Senior2Senior program has high school students making lasting friendships with their senior citizen pen pals
Davie County is no stranger to programs dedicated to bringing the community together, reports USA Today. For example, their Senior Services program is thriving with numerous active members. It’s here that Snider reached out to start her idea for Letters to Santa but in the opposite direction.
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The demand was high from the start, as Letters to Santa already had a lot of enthusiasm, even from unexpected sources.
“I had students who previously had never really felt engaged in school get so excited about that project,” Snider revealed. “I really wanted a way to recreate that for spring semester.”
Enter Senior2Senior, which began in February, pairing high school seniors with senior citizens. Every bit of the experience proved an exciting novelty for both age demographics.
“She started explaining to us the notes and how we were gonna go back in time to writing with pencil and paper,” recalled Davie County high school senior Tania Arellano, “and we’re like, OK, so no emails? OK, all right, no typing? It’s just pencil and paper.” But the students got so much more than a blast from the past.
Both groups of seniors quickly came to love this new form of building connections
The appeal of the human connection through traditional letter writing quickly enticed students and senior citizens alike. “We always say, ‘Well, did you get your letter? What did your person say?’” shared senior citizen Anne Gould with Davie County Senior Services. “So we kept up with each other’s stories of our new friends.”
As for the students, they ended up gifted with invaluable wisdom from those who had a lifetime of lessons to teach. Perhaps most importantly, they were encouraged to pursue their dreams and never rule out any exciting opportunity for themselves. This all reached newfound heights when the students and seniors got to meet in person at the Davie County Senior Center, which is just minutes away from their school. Because of past negative experiences, Brianna Covington was nervous to meet her pen pal, Allison Brown, expecting negativity and reprimands for her generation. Instead, she found someone she connected with at a profound level, right down to shared family traumas and a history of moving around a lot.
“For the longest, I wasn’t comfortable here,” shared Covington. “She kind of helped me with some of that.” The connection was so profound, in fact, that Covington admitted, “Some of the responses that I would get from her, like, made me emotional, like I would cry in class.” They were tears of joy, to be so deeply understood, and to now believe beyond any doubt that “I can learn a lot from like, a different generation. Learning life experiences from someone who’s already, you know, been where I was, and who has done more, I just think that’s really interesting.”
Similarly, Tania Arellano spoke with her pen pal, Anne, about her nervousness concerning an upcoming soccer game. She also spoke of her dreams of studying engineering. Anne confidently assured Tania that she would succeed at all she endeavored. “I was signing up for all these things I didn’t know I was going to be able to do,” said Tania, “and whenever I got her support on this, I felt joy because someone understands me and someone is there for me.”
This is the first time Davie County High School has participated in a setup of this nature. But Tania, Covington, and just about every participant in the Senior2Senior program is excited for the initiative to continue for years to come.