The community service organization that I joined almost a year ago, Letters for Rose, was founded by two girls in high school whose goal was to connect with senior citizens in a fun and COVID-friendly way. Since its establishment, Letters for Rose has started chapters in almost every state and even in other countries. Volunteers like me write letters and create artwork that we send out every two weeks. One week this summer I received an email thanking me for my contributions and telling me that I had been selected as volunteer of the month!
The following is an excerpt from a short paragraph that I was asked to write to be featured on the LFR instagram page:
I joined the Letters for Rose community after seeing a TikTok during COVID lockdown. I saw it at the perfect moment because I had been looking for a way to do community service during the pandemic. As someone who loves writing letters and making artwork for people (especially my grandparents), Letters for Rose was the perfect opportunity for me. My favorite thing about the cards that I make is that I can really be myself. I can speak freely about how I feel, and draw or paint whatever images pop into my head. It became my go-to way to relax and calm down when school got stressful due to the pandemic.
I’m the kind of person who can spend hours and hours sitting at my desk doodling, so this was the perfect way to focus on something peaceful, no strings attached. I also loved the idea that I was making someone’s day better just by doing something that I myself enjoy. It's hard to describe how happy it makes me to know that the time I am taking to plan and create my letters is being appreciated by someone. I may not have met the recipients of these letters, and I may never, but I like to imagine that we know each other. They even inspired a short story that I submitted in my English class! From the beginning, this community has been so welcoming and all-around extremely fun to be a part of. I couldn't be more grateful that the TikTok popped up on my ForYou page when it did.
LFR is a super great way to do community service and I obviously love it, so if anyone has any interest in joining the community, I am providing their information below. I have also included a couple pictures of my own letters and art at the bottom of this post.