Father Gorman Grade 2 students Kezina George and Jinclirub Lin take their turn to check the school mailbox for letters addresses to their class. Mail has been pouring in since the beginning of February, with an average of 20 letters per day. Jeannette Benoit-Leipert Meridian Source
A Facebook post has started a ripple effect of kindness, and a unique learning opportunity at Father Gorman School.
Grade 2 teacher Lori Bender said she’s ‘ecstatic’ with the response and kindness shown by people near and far.
Earlier this year, she made the post asking families, friends and fellow teachers to help out the class with the ‘Hearts Around the World’ program.
The post included the school address and the goal was to get valentines from each of the provinces and territories and maybe even some other countries.
“The kids love it. Every single day, opening the mail. They’re so excited to go down, check the mail, bring the mail back and then see where all of our messages are from,” said Bender.
“I’m actually in awe about all the places that have sent mail and have shown so much kindness to us.”
The class has received mail from as far away as Saudi Arabia, Thailand, and New Zealand.
“They’ve taken the time to sit down, and they’ve written full-on letters to us telling our class about their community. They’ve sent us USBs with things about their culture,” said Bender, adding her students are now reciprocating the kindness by making their own postcards and sending them out to different schools.
“It just warms my heart to know this is happening in my classroom but also all around; we’re trying to spread that kindness, too.”
Bender said when she made the post she didn’t know what kind of reception she’d get, but it’s obvious the reception was great. The class is still receiving letters nearly a month after Valentine’s Day.
“I had over 400 shares and then I sent it out to my families who shared with their families and the cards started to flood in, kind of before Valentine’s Day, and they just keep coming,” said Bender.
“Our class is just overwhelmed with all of the support we’ve gotten. We probably get 20ish letters a day. It is awesome. They’re still coming in.”
Some of the letters also came from places close to Lloydminster as well, and she says the class appreciates every letter they get.
“Even people in places close to Lloydminster have taken the time to send out messages to us and our class,” said Bender.
“I’m very overwhelmed with the amount of people that have taken the time to just write cards, write a letter, also go to the post office and mail it.”
Bender said students will continue to check the mail every day and she’ll continue to have the students mark the origin of the mail on their map, teaching them about the various locations and cultures.
