At a table at Davie County Senior Services, Caleb Wagner, a senior at Davie High School, sits with his friend Judy playing a game of Bingo. The two exchange pleasantries as they play through the game, filling out cards filled with slang terms from different generations. To see the easy camaraderie the two share might seem surprising to the outside observer. After all, Judy is a senior, too: a senior citizen, that is. But the two are not alone in the senior center—dozens of Davie High seniors are sharing in this moment as they meet face to face with the men and women who they have been sending letters to for the past few months.
This meeting was made possible by the efforts of English teacher Ashley Snider as part of the Senior2Senior pen pal project. The project entails and encourages senior students at Davie High to make connections with senior citizens in our community through the simple process of letter writing. Pen pals have lost popularity over the course of the last decade due to the evolving technology of the internet. Many people, however, still adore communication through pen and paper, as Davie High seniors have been discovering for the past year.
What started only as a classroom assignment has since turned into a collective project, one that has garnered national media attention and recognition, and has once again continued to unite the community within Davie County, and has further brought joy to Snider as the event has continued on from previous semesters.
“This project means more to me each time. I started the project with many inspirations, but pushed it through in an effort to bring back my own joy,” Snider said. “I have a passion for the humanities. For reading and writing. For connections beyond labels or boundaries. And for empathy above cruelty—This project speaks to all of that.”
Snider has implemented numerous projects that all take focus on the act of writing letters to others, with the purpose of bringing joy to others, including “Letters from Santa” during the Christmas holiday season. But this project is now a recurring event that happens in collaboration with all of her classes each semester.
Each semester, Snider sits down with her classes to present a video containing clips of previous students meeting their senior pen pals. But the only difference this year was the fact that so many senior citizens had signed up to participate. From sending out the first letter to finally receiving one in return, the names remained unknown, but the sharing of stories and personality aspects flourished from pen to paper.
Students like Caleb Wagner found the project to be “fun in unexpected ways.” Initially under the impression that this was just another assignment, only resulting in a letter grade in InfiniteCampus, he eventually came to see it as so much more than that—something with more meaning than he could’ve ever imagined.
“I assumed it was just going to be just writing letters back and forth and kinda feel superficial. It was very much the opposite, and it was kind of inspirational in a way,” Wagner said. “This is a very stressful time for most seniors in high school, since there’s so much change, but it was refreshing to make a genuine connection with someone who has already had plenty of life experience.”
With the hopes of seeing this project continue, from students and senior citizens alike, Snider simply requests that others “pay it forward.”
“I hope they will appreciate the wisdom and experiences of the older generations in their own lives–before it’s too late to get to know them as people, not just old people. I hope that our older generations will, in turn, see the resilience and beauty and hope that lies with our youth. Simply, I hope we can keep a spirit of community, love, and support in a world that wants enemies and not friends.”
