Meals on Wheels cards and notes by George Davison Elementary students (photo Ross Lavigne)

By Chantal Wagner

spreading joy

Students create feel-good cards for Meals on Wheels recipients

Oct 29, 2020 | 10:56 AM

MEDICINE HAT, AB – Residents who receive meals on wheels will also get a handmade card and note from local students while they enjoy their food.

Crescent Heights High School and George Davison Elementary students have been busy creating the feel-good notes.

Grades K-12 success coach Jill Forsythe says this is a city initiative, and they’ve been asked to create at least 100 cards.

“I think we all know when you get a card from a little kid it’s so innocent, it’s so joyful, it’s so happy. It’s just uplifting to have the piece of art or card.”

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She says more people are relying on meals on wheels right now.

And with COVID restrictions, everyone is a bit more isolated than they normally would be.

Meals on wheels is now serving 100 residents, that’s up from 60.

Forsythe says the cards are meant to bring some joy and light to their life.

“I’ve also been talking a lot about random acts of kindness day when we’re doing this activity. So teaching kids that every time we do an act of kindness we’re filling someone’s bucket or filling their heart with joy, but it also fills our own buckets, or are own hearts with joy and it’s a good way to pull ourselves out of any kind of low mood or any funk we may be having because of COVID restrictions.”

Forsythe says the cards will go out on Remembrance Day.

So far, 113 have been created and her classes will be working on more.

She says it’s great to involve students in the community and collaborate on ideas with the city.

“This kind of thing ties into everything that success coaches do in the schools. We go into the classrooms, we do presentations on anything and everything to do with mental health. So focusing on kindness right now is something our team is really excited about. Just because everyone is kind of going through rough times. We know Medicine Hat has had a rough go lately so anything that we can do to bring more kindness and joy back into our student’s lives and the community at large too,” Forsythe added.