Thornton Academy students send Valentine's Day cards to seniors

SACO — Last week, Thornton Academy students teamed up with Age Friendly Saco to hand-write 436 custom-designed Valentine's cards, which by now have made their way to local seniors' mailboxes.

"I just think it's extremely heartwarming," said Age Friendly Director Jean Saunders. "It's a wonderful multigenerational program to reach out to our seniors in this time of social isolation."

On that cold Sunday afternoon, as snow started to fall outside, the students gathered in the cafeteria to write the cards, with representation from the Residential Life program, Lori Smith's Digital Design class, and the Ambassador Program.

Two students whose card designs were chosen sat together – Rachel Poulin and Tralee Pomerleau – filling in card after card with care.

"I just really wanted mine to be a cute thing that when you look at it, it just makes you smile, and makes you kind of forget everything that's going on," Tralee said. "Just for a little bit."

 

A Valentine's card designed by Thornton Academy Students.  Photo courtesy of City of Saco

The pair are in Smith's Digital Design class and get to work on real-world projects, often in collaboration with the City. Out of 40 designs the class produced, 10 were chosen to be printed and distributed.

"I get choked up when I think about what a sweet message it is, coming from our high school students," said Saunders. "Who wouldn't think that when they get that card, that it wouldn't bring a smile to their face? They were amazingly well done."

Student Izzie Roughton said it wasn't a hard choice to spend her Sunday afternoon this way.

"I like doing things that make other people happy," she said.

These students are active in other areas of our community, too. Age Friendly Saco hosted a food distribution program last week, and Saunders said many of those same students showed up at the middle school to help distribute hundreds of food boxes.

"It's a gift to our community to have this wonderful collaboration," she said.