Project: Christmas letters
Created: 12/18/2021, 5:05 PM
From: Petra Schafflik
Christmas mail for residents in the Marienstift Caritas nursing home: © Schafflik
Third grades of the convent school wrote dozens of individually designed, personal Christmas letters to senior citizens who live in the Marienstift Caritas nursing home.
The Christmas greetings were presented by ten children on behalf of all students to the home manager Till Pabst and Barbara Rippl, head of the social support department.
"We are really happy that you are here", Pabst greeted the young visitors in the home garden.
“That is a great idea, I say thank you on behalf of the residents!” The children, according to Pabst, “must have thought about it a lot and felt it”.
A small celebration with mulled wine and children's punch, attended by residents and the students singing a song to the senior citizens - unfortunately, all of this was not possible due to the pandemic.
But from the window, some senior citizens waved happily to the children who were still playing a little in the garden with skipping ropes and soccer balls that the home has in store for visits to kindergartens or schools.
"When children come to us, the residents are always very enthusiastic," emphasized Pabst.
The idea for the Christmas letter campaign came about because the traditional Christmas bazaar could not take place at the school, explains teacher Julia Engl. The students were very enthusiastic about the matter and enjoyed the design.
"We thought about what we could write with the class and wrote down all the ideas," report Ivan and Felix. They both put their personal draft on paper again at home, they say. Siara wrote in her Christmas letter "how we celebrate Christmas". Magdalena says that her grandmother also lives in a nursing home, so she was able to empathize with it. The student folded an angel out of music paper and placed it in her letter, as she says. “You can hang the angel on the window!” Greta painted a Christmas tree in her letter: “I thought the idea with the Christmas letters was good, because older people can no longer go away and visit others.” And Josephine thinks, “That everyone I hope you will enjoy the letter ”.
The staff of the Marienstift will now personally deliver the children's letters to each recipient.
And maybe, hopes teacher Franziska Decker, will one or the other even write back, and pen pals develop?
