When Huntley High School teacher Renae St. Clair paired her Medical Academy students with Sun City pen pals last fall, she had one goal in mind: to foster the critical skill of being able to converse with a stranger.
The result? Mission accomplished. The evidence? Those strangers quickly turned into friends.
“Easily five hundred letters have gone back and forth in the span of a couple of months,” said St. Clair. “I did not expect it on this scale. Honestly, they are impacting each other’s lives.”
What did they talk about?
“The first girl had such a sweet letter,” said Sun City pen pal Judy Stage. “She said, ‘Dear pen pal. I want to tell you about one vacation I took with my two girlfriends last summer.’ I told her I was happy she had nice friends, that I had good friends, too.”
Sophomore Ali Hornberg and her pen pal discussed music and books and progressed from there.
“Even the little things that happened in my week or that happened in her week. It’s just crazy how much a pen and paper can do,” said Hornberg.
St. Clair was struck by the genuine interest Del Webb pen pals showed in their students.
“I opened letter after letter that started ‘Congratulations! I can’t believe you got accepted into so and so college. I’m so proud of you.’
“Some of my students may not have heard that from anybody else,” said St. Clair. “It may have been expected from their parents. It may have been expected from their friends. This might be one of the few times somebody’s saying, ‘Good job! Your hard work is paying off.’ It impresses the heck out of me.”
Despite the age difference, the pen pals found plenty in common.
“One of my pen pals plays the same sport as me,” said high school senior Faith Doy. “I play softball and so does he. Holy cow, we are fifty years between us, and, yet, we are almost the same person.”
Sun City pen pal Tom Fitzpatrick concurs.
“At first it was a high school girl and an old guy trying to make that common ground,” said Fitzpatrick. “But it seems to dissolve, all these years. It doesn’t matter what age you are.”
Del Webb pen pal Terry Kafenshtok considered the age difference a bonus.
“That was one of the things that drew me to it,” said Kafenshtok. “In our family, we don’t have any high schoolers, so it was nice to connect with somebody that age.”
The bonding is evident.
“It’s not surface level anymore,” said Doy. “We’re into the deep stuff, to the point when something happens, I’ve got to write my pen pals.”
Stage said, “I tell them, ‘I’ll be thinking of you. I can’t wait to get your next letter.’ I said to one girl, ‘I hope I’m not boring you.’ She wrote, ‘Oh no. I love reading your letters. My parents are as excited to read them as I am.’”
“They’re like part of my family,” said Doy. “They’re in my everyday conversation. If my pen pals could write me a book about their lives, I would read every word multiple times.”
And like true friends, they also read between the lines.
“I was able to tell what’s important to her,” said Fitzpatrick. “Not just by what she was writing but by how she was writing it. I don’t know what she looks like, but I can picture her smiling when she’s talking about something she’s excited about.”
What is the future for these pals? Most hope to keep penning letters long after the program ends.
“I have a feeling that one or both of these girls will keep in touch their whole life,” said Stage.
“I would love to keep writing, take it for the long run,” said Doy. “I learn a lot from them. I think I have the best pen pals in the entire program. No offense to any other pen pal. I’m sure they’re great. But mine are amazing.”
Anyone can see the smile behind that.
