Such a simple concept. Such a huge impact. Meet Jacob Cramer, a 21-year-old Yale University student and the founder of “Love For Our Elders”.
Jacob founded Love For Our Elders in 2013, after his grandfather died. To honor his grandfather, he began volunteering as the “bingo boy” at a local senior living community.
On his website, Jacob reflects, “I started visiting the residents one-on-one, and some of them became my best friends. During my awkward teenage years when I often felt alone, I found people who cared about me.
But I quickly found out the world didn’t always care about them. In fact, many would tell me that I was their only visitor. They hadn’t heard from family in months.
That didn’t seem fair. At 13, it was common sense: the residents made me feel so loved; so surely, they deserved to feel the same. I went home and began scribbling handwritten letters of love to give to my older friends. It made them smile. I traded my title for “letter boy.”
Since then, I’ve been on a mission to alleviate a growing loneliness epidemic.”
And his mission has been quite the success!
Jacob now has a team of people and more than 50,000 volunteers across 70 countries working together to fight loneliness with love.
Since 2013, they have mailed hundreds of thousands of thousands of letters to deserving seniors.
If you know a senior who could use some cheering up through the mail, you can nominate them on the Love For Our Elders website: https://loveforourelders.org/
Each month, several people are chosen to be featured and volunteers from all over the world have the chance to brighten someone’s day.
This month, I chose to write to 90-year-old Al, who lost his wife six years ago, and who checks the mail daily “just in case someone sent a card”. ❤
What I love about this program is that all you need is a postage stamp and a few minutes of your time for act of kindness that can make such a difference in someone’s life.
I hope you will join me and send a letter today…let’s spread some love together! Here are all the current requests for letters: https://loveforourelders.org/letter-requests
Janene
For more on amazing teens, check out “11 Posts That Prove Just How Awesome Teenagers Can Be” https://imightbefunny.com/heartwarming/11-posts-that-prove-just-how-awesome-teenagers-can-be/
