Aulora Buffalo wants to feel like she used to and be able to say she’s proud of her hometown.
It’s not that she’s ashamed of Stratford, but it doesn’t have that same kind of neigbhourly feel to it in her opinion. People aren’t as social with one another as they used to be, and she’s working on something she hopes will change that.
“My working background is in retirement homes, and I’ve seen year after year older folks who just don’t have anybody to talk to,” she said. “I was watching a movie with my wife and saw a similar idea about looking for love at Christmas. I wanted to change it around so I’ve been reaching into homes and getting a letter exchange going.”
Yes, it’s a pen pal program. Buffalo has already got two willing participants: Knollcrest Lodge in Milverton will see some of their residents keeping in touch with students of Hamlet Public School. It’s not just a Christmas thing; Buffalo is hoping this will extend well past the holidays.
“The idea is to connect people – it doesn’t have to be school kids or seniors,” she said. “It’s for anybody feeling lonely and just needs somebody to talk to. The world is becoming more and more about just ourselves and nobody’s really making the effort to make a community any more. I was born and raised here and I grew up in a community where everybody looked out for each other and we made sure everyone was okay. Now it’s more isolated.”
Jayde Middleton, the life enrichment manager for Knollcrest, said that Buffalo reached out to the lodge’s community contact team with her contact information and, as it turned out, the vibe was something Middleton was looking for.
“Pen Pals was something that my department has always talked about looking into and exploring with our residents but we hadn’t quite come to the point of expanding on the idea,” she said. “So when I heard from Aulora it was great to have someone who was already looking at ways to organize and help people connect.”
Middleton said there have been five residents who’ve expressed a keen interest in taking part in the program, while there have been others with a general interest. She believes there are lots of positives for residents who participate, with social gatherings between other residents to talk about their messages and assist each other being the primary one.
“It’s nice being able to connect with others in the community and surrounding areas,” she said. “When connecting with kids and reading their innocent stories and their imagination on paper, it is so intriguing. We look forward to seeing the creative things that they come up with to decorate their cards as well – I think it will be fun for our residents to see and experience this together and it provides a great opportunity to reminisce as well from when they were kids or the experiences they had with their own kids or young family members.”
From the school’s perspective, this is as much an educational experience as it is social growth. Kim Tune’s kindergarten class will be taking part and she’s excited for the growth opportunity it presents her students.
“The kindergarten curriculum has certain areas of learning and one is in the area of belonging and contributing,” she said. “The expectations in this learning frame are that students will understand that everyone belongs to a group or community, and that people can belong to more than one group at a time. It also offers an understanding that different groups may have different ways of being and working together, and it gives the kids a chance to describe, both verbally and non-verbally, ways in which they contribute to the various groups to which they belong.”
Tune said she often discusses with her students the concept of community and family, and the program gives them a concrete example of how kindness and their actions affect others not only at home but also as part of a larger community. She said there will be 28 students taking part and they hope to introduce this as part of their writing centre.
“The students are eager to connect with elders and be kind to them by sharing with them all the kindergarten fun we have and learn about what things they like in return and learn more about them,” Tune said.
Buffalo’s hope is that this opens a door others are going to want to go through on their own, remembering what their pen pal experiences were like in their younger days.
“When I put the original ad on Facebook, I had people reaching out to me and saying they did this kind of thing in elementary school where they would connect with people at Christmas, so I’m hoping this will stick with those kids,” she said. “It’s blossoming into more than what I had originally planned it for, but it’s exciting to see where this is going.”
Buffalo said it works this way: people who are interested can reach out to her via email at [email protected], and she adds them to her list and then figures out who would make good pen pals for others on the list. At the time of her interview, Buffalo reported having about 100 names already signed up and she’s hoping it keeps on growing.
“The best-case scenario for me is that Stratford becomes a community again, becomes the town that I was proud to say I was from when I grew up here,” she said. “Right now I’m not proud to say that because we feel disconnected from each other. I want us to get back to feeling connected to each other, to caring for one another like we used to.”
