The Pen Pal Project is looking for more adult volunteers to write letters to fifth-graders this school year.
Erin Adams, Volunteer Connections manager at the Human Services Council, said the program is still trying to find letter writers for a classroom at Sarah J. Anderson Elementary School. Volunteer Connections recently email blasted its followers, asking for more pen pals.
Volunteers have already been matched up with students at Riverview, Hearthwood and Crestline elementary schools, and another classroom at Sarah J. Anderson.
“It’s a pretty simple way of volunteering. It’s a pretty simple way of mentoring a child,” Adams said.
Over the school year, volunteers write one letter a month to a student. Traditionally, teachers incorporate letter writing into their literacy lessons. It all culminates in an end-of-year dessert party, where the students and adults meet in person for the first time.
Steve Smith, who volunteers with the program, has ambitions to get 100 more volunteers for Endeavor Elementary School. Some volunteers have been pen pals since the program began 23 years ago. Historically, however, getting new volunteers for the program has been more of a trickle than a flood, Adams said. Not to mention, it takes time to screen all of the participating volunteers.
“Research has shown that when children have just one adult out of their family structure — just one adult — it increases their chances of life success so dramatically,” Adams said. “You can be a caring adult from a distance.”
Around this time of year is when Volunteer Connections recruits school volunteers. Besides the Pen Pal Project, there are opportunities to be Lunch Buddies, tutors, classroom assistants or volunteer at school libraries.
