Over the past two years, Project Pen Pal, a volunteer-based club, has created connections between Normal West High School students and Parkside Elementary’s 5th graders by engaging in ‘pen-pal’ letters.
Founders senior Emma O’Brien and junior Julia Knuth created the club because they wanted to leave an impact at West.
O’Brien also has fond memories of having a pen pal in elementary school and wanted to bring back the tradition.
On Tuesday, December 2, from 5:30 to 7:00, Project Pen Pal hosted a writer’s workshop at West for Unit 5 students, (second and fifth grades), to work on their writing skills and to learn the correct letter format by writing a letter to Santa.
There were also other activities, including a raffle, trivia, etc.
While there was no fee to attend, a sign-up sheet was circulated so club members could have an estimate of how many people would be attending.
“We had a format set up for the kids [to help] with body paragraph, the different format of a letter, and then those will be addressed to Santa,” Knuth explained.
“Then they were able to go hand [their letters] to Santa. On the walls, we had a raffle set up from different stores in town that have donated. There were snacks and winter trivia.”
While the event was created as a fun activity, members of Project Pen Pal were persuaded to create it because they had noticed kids struggling with writing letters.
“[We noticed] a lot of grammar mistakes from the kids, and like having an introduction, ending, and stuff like that. [We thought, maybe, the letter format] had gotten a little lost, and so we thought it would be a way to introduce that for them in case they needed a reminder,” Knuth stated.
In the end, the event not only taught those students who struggle with letters, but it also brought a lot of Holiday cheer to all who attended.
