Letters unite students with hospital workers

The students got to meet their letter-writing buddies at the hospital Tuesday.

STAFF REPORT

WARREN — In an age of e-mail and text-messaging, who could imagine that an old-fashioned letter would be the instrument to bring together students from an inner-city elementary school and staff from a community hospital.

That’s what happened this year, however, when St. Joseph Health Center’s mission committee sponsored a letter exchange between fourth-grade students at Horace Mann Elementary School and hospital employees.

Three sets of letters were exchanged — first, Valentine’s Day greetings and, later, more thought-provoking themes, such as: “The luckiest thing to happen to me has been ...” which was scheduled around St. Patrick’s Day, and “What have you planted that has grown” for the spring.

Many businesses and organizations “adopt” a school to provide material things to help make the school year go a little better for the students. Many donate school supplies or conduct food drives. For years, the St. Joe’s staff did this.

But this year the relationship went one step further by engaging the fourth-graders in the letter-writing program, which allowed students to find out about individual members of the hospital staff as well as letting staff members learn more about the lives of Horace Mann children.

“The exchange of letters was an awesome experience for both the staff and the students,” said Sister Dianne Tress, the hospital’s director of mission integration.

“Since the letters were personalized, each felt they were really getting to know the other,” Sister Dianne said. The letters were posted in the cafeteria so other employees could also get to know the students.

“I have never seen our employees so engaged,” Sister Dianne said. The letters allowed the workers to follow the progress of the children and give back to the community by showing the children that they care about them.

The letter exchange brought about the desire for the students and employees to meet, so a trip to the hospital was arranged Tuesday. The students met their writing buddies but also participated in scrapbooking, photos, tours and lunch.

Last fall, the hospital’s staff collected school supplies for the children. In March, more than 1,000 pounds of food was collected for children to eat at school and to take home.

Sister Dianne said the hospital is going to continue developing its relationship with the Horace Mann students, many of whom come from low-income families that struggle day to day to keep their families fed and clothed.

Sydney Flynn, a Horace Mann student, said she enjoyed reading the letters from a hospital pharmacist, who talked about how he survived a motorcycle accident.

Student William Sims said his writing buddy explained the type of work he did at the hospital, and William told the employee about the times he has had to go to the hospital.

Employee Julanne Follmeyer said she wrote in one letter to Antonio McQueen about how an acorn turns into a mighty oak tree and how he will be that mighty oak as long as he continues to love other people even when they don’t love him back.

“I learned to stop and think before you do something,” Antonio said. “Talk to someone before you do something bad.”