Students make 250 Valentine’s Day cards for seniors

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    Matherville, Illinois (Quad-City Times) — Evelyn Weakley remembers going with her family to deliver cards to senior living homes when she was little.

“They were really happy when they saw the cards, that made me happy,” the sixth grade student said. “I wanted to do this because I wanted them to be happy like that.”

Weakley is a student at Matherville Intermediate school. The 6th grade class answered the call when Senator Neil Anderson, 36th District Illinois, requested schools participate in a Valentine’s for Seniors card drive he hosted.

“I thought this would be a great opportunity for my English students… I was overjoyed with how many cards we made,” said 6th grade Matherville teacher Elisabeth Tomlin.

The class made 250 cards, Tomlin said. Many students opted to do more — even spending time at home making extra.

“We discussed how hard the pandemic has been on people, especially the elderly. We spent a whole class period being creative and writing encouraging cards,” Tomlin said students got extra creative.

“I made a bunch of different types of cards, I looked up some, and then I put jokes on most of them — and then the answers on hearts. I used googly eyes and stuff as well,” said 6th grade student Georgia Anderson.

“I just thought that with the seniors — they would just like to have kids make them something and know they’ll be happy when they get them,” she said.

Senator Anderson posted an update on his Facebook page, “Residents of these facilities have been hit hard not only by COVID-19 but also by not having the opportunity to get out and visit with family and friends. Thank you again to all those students and all the others that took the time to do these, it will surely raise their spirits.”

He said they received and delivered over 6,000 cards.

Jacob Seukunian, district director for Anderson, said the drive was, “Hugely successful in our opinion… we spent all of last week delivering valentines.” He said they visited every senior living facility in the 36th district, an estimated 70 total.

The senator is sponsoring a pizza party for the class that made the most cards, according to the flyer sent to schools. Weakley said that incentive inspired her to make extra — but not for the pizza.

“Because they were giving a pizza party for the class that made more — I knew they were worried they might not get enough. I knew adding extra probably wasn’t going to do that much — but they might not have (otherwise) gotten a lot,” she said.

Weakley and Anderson made almost around 20-30 cards each. Anderson sums up her experience succinctly, “I think they’ll be happy (that) kids are caring about the seniors and wanting to make them happy on Valentine’s day.”

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