ROCKWOOD – Kindergarten students at Sacred Heart Catholic School here have embraced a campaign to make Easter cards for elderly residents in the area.
The initiative, run by early childhood educator (ECE) Elizabeth Dexter, in collaboration with kindergarten teachers Johanna Samson, Monica Lawrence and Agata Bochenek and ECE Beverly Self, is a part of the Rockwood school’s observation of Lent, which began March 2 and ends April 14.
The 40-day period is a time of preparation and an opportunity to get closer to God through prayer, almsgiving and fasting, Dexter explained.
Instead of fasting and giving up something, the school’s kindergarten classes, made up of nearly 60 students, chose to share their love with the elderly by making them cards, just in time for Easter.
“We asked them who they would like the cards to go to and they initially said people who might not have friends or people who might not have things, and then we suggested to them that maybe we should make them for the elderly because they would appreciate the artwork,” Dexter said.
“The children are hoping that the cards are given to residents that may not have any family or visitors during Easter.”
The cards, crafted by the students themselves, feature prayers and symbols of faith and spring.
The cards, she said, feature the students’ own artwork on the meaning of Easter.
“We’ve done a lot of religious lessons about Easter, and about spring and about new birth and new growth and giving,” she explained.
“So a lot of their cards are faith based, however, they’re also pictures of spring and family and love and friendship and crosses, eggs – that sort of stuff.”
School officials are hoping to make the card campaign an annual feature of Lent and Dexter said the school is also looking to run the initiative for Christmas as well.
“[The students are] so proud of their work, it’s so beautiful,” she said.
“Everything they did themselves – their little cards, their eggs – each one of them traced their hands and made a prayer for the elderly and made a prayer for their families.”
Dexter said everybody at the school was on board with the initiative from the start – and the students are very excited about it.
The students also put together a “40 days of promises” display about being kind and loving.
On April 7, Dexter delivered the cards to Eramosa Non-Profit Housing, The Village of Riverside Glen and Eden House Care Facility.
“Because the elderly have been so secluded, this is such a positive thing for them to be able to receive the artwork from the kids after two years of limited visitations, limited exposure,” she explained.
The students also put together a “40 days of promises” display that encouraged them to be kind and loving.
Every day, the class would choose someone to make a faith promise to God or Jesus, which Dexter said promotes thinking about other things besides themselves.
“We develop a sense of empathy in our classroom and a real sense of community,” she explained.
“The children understand that doing good things or kind gestures for other people really builds who they are and it connects them to our [faith] …
“It’s the foundation, in my opinion, of growth.”
