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PenPals Meet at Senior Center

Mr. B's first grade class performing for the seniors at the 18th annual Pen Pal Party.

Nancy L. Drawe

(Punky)

May 27, 2010 — Last week, some of the Star Wars characters invaded the Hopkinton Senior Center!  That’s right—Darthvader, Anikan Skywalker and Luke descended upon the center, bringing with them some of their friends: Buck Tooth Bob, Mummy Wrap, Murph dog, Mario, Sparkly Fairy, Puppy and Kitten, Jessica, and Pumpkin Girl, just to name a few.   The only difference is that these characters were all little four foot first graders from the Center School!   They were there for one reason—to meet their Senior Pen Pals whom they have been corresponding with back and forth all year.   This was the annual Pen Pal Pizza Party, number 18 to be exact, by Center School’s first grade teacher, Mark Boisvert, otherwise known as Mr. B.   Eighteen years ago, Mr. B’s fourth grade class at Elmwood School was corresponding with a group of fourth graders in Alaska, but he felt that they were not really making a connection because of the distance.   At that time, the Senior Center contacted the school asking if they could set up a pen pal program with the seniors and students.  Mr. B got involved and has been doing it ever since, starting with the fourth grade, then fifth, and now the first graders.   Mr. B said, “The children really love the fact that they are writing to seniors.  Many of the students here don’t live near their own grandparents and therefore don’t have much of a connection.” 

At the beginning of the year, the twenty or so children choose their “fake” pen pal names and then parent volunteers come in to help them write their first letter.  The letters are then sent to the Senior Center and are distributed to the Senior Pen Pals by coordinators Joyce Plucker and Donna Deneen.  Pat Wade had been the previous coordinator, since 1997, but retired last year.  She did a great job coordinating the event, matching pen pals, designating times for letters to be written and delivered, etc.   This year, Joyce and Donna took over the job and were just as awesome! 

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Mr. B said, “At the beginning of the year the children need lots of help and by the end of the year they need very little.  The parent volunteers love to see how much progress the children make with their letter writing during the year.”  It’s so funny, I’ve read quite a few of the letters some of the kids have sent to their pen pals and I always get a big kick out of what they say.  Many of them ask their pen pals such questions as, “Do you have a pet?”  “Do you like to roller blade?”  “What soccer team are you on?”  “How old are you?”  “Do you play baseball?”  Some of them give information such as how many brothers or sisters they have, the name of their dog, their favorite food and what they like best about school.   Most of the kids will draw a picture and include that as well.  This year, one of the little girls was so excited that she wrote to her pen pal, “I’m going to play the piano for you!”

Once the seniors get their first letter, they also choose a “fake” name and write back by a date specified by Pat Wade.    Each month, the kids wait excitedly for their letters to arrive.  Mr. B said, “The children love when the seniors write about when they were young.”

Center School Principal Jennifer Parson, said, “It is amazing each year to see the bond that is created between the students and their Senior pen pals through the writing of traditional "friendly" letters, which is something that is often forgotten about with the ease and popularity of e-mail.” 

As far as choosing pen pal “fake” names, I think it pretty much depends on what’s popular that year.  There’s been years when the kids have chosen baseball player names such as Yaz, Rodriguez, and Manny.   One year a boy had chosen Johnny D. (for Damon), but when Damon left for the Yankees, he changed his name to just Johnny.  There’s usually a “fairy or princess” theme involved also. 

The BIG EVENT is at the end of the school year when both Pen Pal parties get to meet each other in person when the Senior Center hosts a Pizza luncheon, supplying the pizza, drinks and ice cream.   The kids, along with Mr. B and parent volunteers, walk up to the Center from their school.  Each child is then introduced one at a time to their senior pen pal and everyone’s “real” names are revealed.  Pizza and sodas are passed out; this is the time the kids and seniors get to know each other.  As I looked around, all I could see were smiling faces of all ages, both kids and adults chatting away from the excitement of finally getting to meet each other. 

I had a chance to speak to a few of the kids and seniors about what the best part of the Pen Pal program was.   Some kids like writing the letters, some like the singing part, and some like drawing pictures, pizza, soda and ice cream, but hands down, the most popular response was “Meeting our Pen Pal!”  The seniors enjoy reading all the great stories and learning about their pen pal’s life. Mr. B said his favorite part of the program is “watching the children interact with their pen pals.” 

The next favorite part is the musical show!  The kids sing four or five songs they practice with the help of retired Hopkinton music teacher Barbara Porter.  The kids love to perform and are all “stars!”  Jen Parson had some very nice words to say about the Pen Pal program: “I have seen Mr. Boisvert's Pen Pal program in action, and it is impressive.  The students take great pride in this program, and Mr. Boisvert has incorporated our school's core values of respect and caring as he encourages his students to reach out to our community's senior citizens.  It is also amazing to see the new Senior Center in action, and the students and seniors now have a bright, cheerful setting for their pizza lunch and performance.  It is a program that has been an obvious success for the 18 years that Mark has been leading it!”

I give my special hopnews.com column CHEERS to everyone who makes this program a success: Donna Deneen and Joyce Plucker for coordinating everything—they did a great job for their first year, the first grade students and seniors for keeping up with their delightful letters,  the parent volunteers for helping the kids out and to the Senior Center for hosting the Pen Pal Pizza Party each year.  Special thanks go out to Mark Boisvert for creating this tremendous project and continuing with it year after year.   He has certainly done one fantastic job!

That’s it for now, so if you have any comments or suggestions, you can email me:  Punkala@aol.com.  Until next time, have a great week!

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