It’s the big day! Students from Oak Hill Community School and Kennedy Community School finally get to meet their pen pals. Their eagerness and excitement is electric in the air.
St. Cloud Area Community Education has offered the Pen Pal Program for nearly 20 years. The program connects community members with third-grade students within the District.
Students are paired with their pal at the beginning of the school year. Each month, both the students and their pen pals write back and forth to each other. At the end of the year, they finally meet over school lunch.
“I look forward to the letters every month,” says Sartell resident, Connie Orth. “Especially when they send artwork with the letter.”
Orth has been a pen pal for seven years and signs up immediately every year when the notification comes out.
“We talked about our families, pets, holidays, traveling and birthdays,” says Orth’s student pen pal, Amaya Garcia.
“We found out that my birthday is the day after her brother’s,” responds Orth. “And, her penmanship is better than mine!”
To Orth, it’s about creating a partnership between the school and community. Anything she can do to help children succeed and grow is what it’s about for her.
Diane Ohmann, youth development and youth service coordinator for St. Cloud Area School District, says the program started with Kristin Scharenbroich, an Oak Hill third-grade teacher. Scharenbroich wanted to do a pen pal program locally instead of out-of-country or outside the community.
Scharenbroich believed the program would enhance the writing skills the students were learning in class while connecting with the community.
United Way of Central Minnesota is central to those connections. Employees from the United Way are offered the opportunity every year to be a pen pal.
Vice President of Community Impact Daniel Larson is in his first year as a Pen Pal.
“It’s great fun,” he says. “You get to know a third-grader.”
Larson and his pen pal, Julian Baker, talked about their hobbies, holidays and family.
John Bryant, another United Way pen pal, says, “It’s terrific. The lunch caps the whole event. It’s great to finally meet Maddox.”
Photos are not exchanged during the process, so meeting their pen pal is always an exciting revelation.
For Bryant, the meeting is extra special. Maddox is moving from the area in two months. The two are so glad to have met. They found out they have a lot in common.
Ohmann expresses how influential the program has been on both community members and students. This year, 79 students from Kennedy were in the program and 90 students from Oak Hill. Her goal is to expand the program districtwide.
Ohmann shares one testimony anonymously: “Love this program. I was recently contacted on Facebook by a college student. She stated she was my pen pal several years ago and saved all my letters. We have reconnected.”
It’s a learning experience for both the students and community members. It creates a strong link for students to connect to their community. It also teaches them an appreciation that they can return as adults.
Interested in being a pen pal? Would you like to be a sponsor to help pay for stamps? Contact Diane Ohmann about next year!