The coronavirus pandemic has made an impact on everyone, forcing all of us to take precautions and make changes to our daily lives.
But no one is affected more than the elderly. Not only are they more at risk for the coronavirus, but social distancing has caused nursing homes to reduce visitors, leaving many seniors more scared and isolated than ever.
But there’s a simple way we can all cheer up these nursing home residents—and it’s as simple as writing a card.
People across the country have been sending cards, letters and drawings to nursing homes, cheering up residents and letting them know they’re in people’s hearts and minds during this difficult time.
Many of the cards are coming from children. It’s a win-win situation: the coronavirus has forced kids to be inside and home from school, so writing notes gives them a creative activity to do.
Vanessa France, from Westminster, Massachusetts, has four young kids at home, and they’ve been hard at work writing cards for the elderly.
“The kids love to do anything arts and crafts and thinking about how stressed everybody is, [we] thought, ‘What can we do to make everybody happy? How can we help?'” Vanessa told Good Morning America.
“Being able to draw those pictures and write those letters, it’s the least we can do and it makes us feel good too,” she said. “As long as we have more paper, we’ll keep doing them.”
And it’s not just kids—Saturday Night Live star Heidi Gardner sent a handmade card to her local nursing home, encouraging people on Instagram to do the same.
It’s a simple, fun way to cheer up people who really need it. People have been posting lists of nursing homes accepting cards, but you can also reach out to your local homes to see if they could use some.
What a great idea! We hope this idea takes off and more people cheer up nursing home residents!
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