After months of writing letters, local pen pals meet for the first time

With nervous jitters, Jazlyn (Jazzy) Green was one of the students who got to meet her pen pal in person for the first time last week.

“I didn’t know what to say at first and now it feels like I know Orrie so much,” Jazzy said.

The grade 6 student at Margaret Wooding School in Redcliff has been writing letters to her pen pal Orrie Whitford since the fall.

Jazzy says getting to know Orrie through letters and meeting her in person was a cool experience.

“She’s amazing, I like her. I learned that she actually has a daughter in Toronto that runs a dance company and her husband is actually my friend’s pen pal.”

Orrie has two pen pals, she says it was nice to write to this age group, adding that as a society, we don’t really write letters anymore.

“It’s always emails and texts and so it was really quite lovely to be able to have an opportunity to talk more at length and Jazzy is a very very good letter writer,” Orrie told Chat News.

Letters included many topics about each other’s interests, family, and even some pictures.

And after about a dozen letters, Jazzy and Orrie along with 40 other pen pal pairs in Medicine Hat and Redcliff really got to know each other.

“She’s a dancer, she’s learning to garden, she loves sports, and she’s a big reader,” Orrie said.

Last year, the CFSEA took over the pen pal project from the city.

They have plans to run it again in the fall, which includes students from kindergarten to grade 12.

“It’s just really been a success, it’s brought a lot of people together that would not have normally interacted,” project coordinator Sydney Ratzlaff said.

It’s been an important way for students and seniors to share different life experiences with each other.

And meeting in person was a great way to finish off the project.

“Hear from another generation and for seniors to get that vitality and hear about what’s going on in youth’s lives,” Ratzlaff added.

“And I have a new friend, it’s always good to have friends of different ages,” Orrie said.

by Chantal Wagner

After months of writing letters, local pen pals meet for the first time

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