48°
“We are encouraging children to think of others, to make seniors happy and to enlighten them about volunteering,” said Ed Ruhl, a member of the Community Action Committee’s Retired and Senior Volunteer Program, who helped the students make cards. “They have great ideas, there’s no end to their talent.”
The cards will be delivered Friday to the residents of Filosa Nursing and Rehabilitation in Danbury, said Gwen Gallagher, whose class made the cards. The activity was also part of the 26 Acts of Kindness movement, which encourages participants to do a kind act for each of the victims of the Sandy Hook tragedy, Gallagher said.
“I want them to be like, ‘What can we do outside of donating money, what else can we do to help people,’” she said.
Volunteering and acts of kindness are nothing new to Gallagher’s class, which has also donated food baskets for Thanksgiving to Danbury families and raised money for victims of Hurricane Sandy and at Sandy Hook. The class is also collecting books to donate to a library in Africa and making cards for patients at St. Jude’s Hospital.
Gallagher said she hopes the cards will spread happiness to the nursing home, which receives many cards during the holidays but is often forgotten the rest of the year.
The activity was also part of the Martin Luther King Jr. Day of Service for the senior volunteers, said Mary J. Davis, program coordinator of the Retired and Senior Volunteer Program. Children are typically eager to continue volunteering and doing acts of kindness once they are exposed to such activities, said Davis, who was on hand to help with the decorating Thursday.
“I hope they learn not just how to be nice to strangers, but also how to let their creative juices flow,” Davis said. “Once kids are introduced to the path of kindness they catch on quickly.”
Click here to follow Daily Voice Danbury and receive free news updates.
