Tidings of comfort and joy

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This article was published 28/12/2020 (1716 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

A note, to show they care.

Three Grade 12 students at Vincent Massey Collegiate — assisted by classmates, and students at École Viscount Alexander and École Julie-Riel — are delivering cards and letters to personal care homes throughout the city, in an effort to help residents feel less lonely during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Katie Skwarchuk, Maggy McGunigal and Tegwen Bryan, all 17, started planning and contacting care homes for their project, “Note of Kindness,” in September.

“We were looking for COVID-safe ways to help out in our community, and when we came up with this, we thought it was the perfect project for us because we all really like the art, we like to write, so we can incorporate art into our cards and into our letters,” Tegwen said.

The trio’s families have supported the project by driving them to personal care homes to deliver the letters.

“We thought this would be a really great way to spread kindness and boost spirits, because it’s also delivering letters in a very COVID-safe way, there isn’t a lot of interaction involved,” Maggy said.

The teens said it’s rewarding to brighten the day of residents at care homes who don’t get to see family and friends every day.

“As teenagers, it’s hard for us and we have the opportunity to go to school every day and see our friends and the people that are in our cohort. So, we can hardly imagine the situation care homes are in and it’s nice to see how many people are eager to help out,” Katie said.

So far, the teenagers have delivered more than 250 cards and letters. They plan to continue writing and delivering during the break and into the new year. (If members of the public want to get involved or care homes want to receive letters, contact them at anoteofkindness03@gmail.com.)

Dozens of schools have been working on similar projects to deliver messages to care home residents, including Lord Selkirk and Hastings. A teacher at Greenway had her students create gifts for front-line health-care workers.

One specific project has a school from every division involved, said Stacey Abramson, a teacher at Maples Collegiate and founder of “Love Grows.”

Abramson said she felt helpless watching COVID-19 cases and deaths rise at the Maples care home in early November, and wanted to do something, via art, to help.

“Love Grows” allows students to create art and write a note on the back of the postcard to be delivered to residents and health-care workers at care homes. The second part of the project allows the resident to write a wish they have on a maple leaf attached to the postcard.

Grant Park High School got involved with “Love Grows” within the first week Abramson started the project.

“It was right around the time when cases in care homes were just getting out of control. At home, my wife and I were feeling pretty heavy about that, not knowing what to do and I was thinking about ways to approach it in a classroom and everything I thought of felt forced, or not the right thing. Then I saw that, and I thought it was perfect,” said Jonathan Dueck, Grant Park art teacher.

He’s already delivered nearly 300 student-made postcards to Poseidon care home.

“I would love it for this to be an ongoing thing. People need art all year-round, not just at Christmas time,” he said. “Even after the pandemic, I think it would be neat.

“I’ve always been interested in making connections outside of the classroom for students — and this may be one of those things that could grow into something else where we work with residents on different projects.”

kellen.taniguchi@freepress.mb.ca