Pen Pals

Since the fall of 2003, when Loyola Catholic Primary School moved to Our Lady of Good Counsel campus, third grade students and sisters living at Good Counsel have been exchanging handwritten letters. The letter exchange begins each school year. Sisters sign up to be pen pals and are matched with students when their letters arrive.

Pen Pals originated as a service learning project, with the intent of connecting students with someone who wasn’t their age. In the classroom this project teaches letter-writing skills. For the sisters it serves as a way to stay connected with children, keeping with the SSND mission of caring for women and children.

Letters about school, family and personal interests fly back and forth across campus. Sisters will often respond the same day they receive a letter. Sister Alene Kuhn had the unique experience of being pen pal to all three of one family’s children. “I enjoyed receiving and answering the letters of all three boys, and I became a friend of the family, whom I remember in my daily prayers.”

The activity’s highlight comes in May, when the students and teachers visit the sisters’ residence to each meet “their” sister. Photographers snap photos of the pen pals together as they sit and chat or tour the building. Finally the students are sent on their way, each holding a shiny red apple gift from the sisters.

Ten years after the start of this program, the sisters and students still enjoy the personal touch of sending and receiving letters, and getting to know each other better.

Photo Credits: Sister Mary Kay Gosch, SSND
Ruth Shanklin Jackson