February 26 is National Letter to an Elder Day, a holiday celebrated by sending an elder a handwritten letter of love. National Letter to an Elder Day was started by Love For Our Elders, a nonprofit organization dedicated to fighting loneliness with love among senior communities. This day comes once a year to honor the art of letter-writing as a way to send love, one letter at a time!
A single handwritten letter has the power to change someone’s day, week, month, or even life. It’s a powerful way to communicate and build relationships. Everyone deserves to feel loved, and Letter to an Elder Day was first celebrated by Love For Our Elders’ volunteers in 2020 to encourage letter writing and intergenerational connections after the holiday season, which can be particularly lonely for elders.
Love For Our Elders began with a young boy and his grandpa. When Jacob Cramer lost his grandfather, he began to volunteer at a local senior living community as a way of honoring his memory. He was lovingly referred to as “Bingo Boy” because of his entertaining and lively way of calling the community’s bingo game (a much heated affair he’s sure to tell you). During his time volunteering, he discovered that many of the residents rarely received messages or visitors from family and friends and that loneliness was a chronic and ever-present problem.
So he decided to start writing letters of love to senior communities; quickly, his moniker changed from Bingo Boy to Letter Boy. He found grace and love in his relationships with his friends in the senior community and eventually decided that he could take his letter writing efforts national. Jacob created a nonprofit that urged people to write letters to elders (or anyone else in need who are older than they are) and facilitated delivery to seniors around the world.
Since 2013, Jacob and his team have amassed an army of 50,000+ letter writers around the world. During the COVID-19 pandemic, they branched out to collect video messages of hope, love, and encouragement, created public awareness campaigns, and engaged individuals, classrooms, and companies.
National Letter to an Elder Day is held on February 26 to coincide with the birthday of Jacob’s grandmother, Doris.
