CARBONDALE, Pa. — "You are loved."
"You are in our thoughts."
"You matter."
These words, written by students at Holy Cross High School in Dunmore, are spreading smiles throughout Aventura at Creekside, a nursing home in Carbondale.
"It just shows our seniors here that people care. The kids care," Brenda Conlon said.
The residents are missing their regular visitors, who are currently not allowed inside due to the coronavirus.
But now, the seniors are forming new friendships, and keeping in touch the old-fashioned way, thanks to a pen pal program between the nursing home and an English class at Holy Cross High School.
"'I hope you're doing well during this very difficult time. Although we can't attend school, we've been doing classwork at home, which keeps us busy. Stay well and please remember how much we care about you,'" Conlon read from one of the student's letters.
The residents are also receiving hand-drawn pictures from kids at Bright Horizons, a Harrisburg-based day care for children of state employees.
"You can see right here one of the nice things that they sent us and the residents absolutely love it and the kids get really involved too, as you can see," Eric Yashinski said.
The looks on the residents' faces when they receive the letters say it all.
"Oh, just complete joy. I mean, at a time like this when they're not allowed out of the facility or to interact with their families, this is the closest thing that they have, along with facetime, and they love it," Yashinski said.
"It's helping them because they know people care about them. Their families, they do Facetime with them, they get phone calls, but to know that children care about them, to know that students care about them," Conlon added.
Staff members say they're going to continue the pen pal program even after the pandemic has passed.