This Nursing Home Started a Pen Pal Program for Lonely Residents and It’s Seriously the Sweetest Thing Ever
Retirement and assisted living homes across the U.S. have shut their doors to visitors in light of COVID-19.
The shortage of new faces at the facility has led one North Carolina nursing home to start it’s very own pen pal program.
After posting about the program on Facebook, accounts across the web started sharing the story, stealing the hearts of people across the world.
It’s safe to say that the COVID-19 pandemic has made for a shortage of physical human connection (in compliance with CDC’s health standards, of course).
Recognizing this, and understanding just how important camaraderie is, one North Carolina nursing home stepped up to the plate to help bring a little more connection into the daily lives of its residents. Victorian Senior Care launched a "pen pal" letter-writing initiative on behalf of their residents to help combat loneliness.
While the pen pal program was first initiated on June 24, it wasn’t until the end of the month/beginning of July that the story really started to swirl around social media.
What started out as a few residents joining in on the program, explaining on posters what they’re looking for in a pen pal, quickly turned into dozens of elders in search of a new friend. And the more residents that shared what they’re looking for, the more the story was shared on social media, and the more people from all over the world started writing in.
A post shared by Country Living (@countrylivingmag) on Jul 1, 2020 at 6:16pm PDT
Where Victorian Senior Care’s original posts have been shared upwards of 350,000 times, the story has been reposted by Upworthy, Katie Couric, and more, garnering tens of thousands of likes and endless comments.
If you’d like to get in on the snail mail fun, you can find the residents’ names and addresses, along with their companionship preferences on Facebook. Here’s to writing good, old-fashioned letters in the name of friendship and love.
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