Plainfield Kiwanis Club Delivers Cards of Hope to Senior Living Facilities
We’ve had a rough spring, there’s no doubt about it. As a result, some community members have put their heads together to come up with creative ways to boost the morale of our fellow neighbors. Lori Lee, president of the Plainfield Kiwanis Club, wanted to spread joy, particularly for the elderly residing in senior and assisted living communities, many of which were forced to go on lockdown to help lessen the chance of the virus spreading.
“I invited my grandchildren to help me make cards to deliver to area assisted living facilities,” says Lee, who also asked her Kiwanis treasurer, Jenifer Laver, to see if her kids wanted to help, too.
“I said, ‘We can do this as a service project because Kiwanis is about kids,’” Lee says.
But she needed more hands so she called Corie Wise, Captain at the Plainfield Fire Territory. He was on board, and within a few days, his crew of firefighters had made 110 cards.
The project snowballed as Lee reached out to other members of the Plainfield Kiwanis Club, including Mark Todisco, the Town of Plainfield Clerk, who enlisted his grandkids to help with the project. In total, in four days’ time, they made 320 cards for staff and patients at Cumberland Trace Senior Living Facility in Plainfield.
They had all kinds of cards — some regular greeting cards, others homemade from construction paper or a repurposed Christmas card. Some included drawings, others were covered in stickers. Some contained bible verses, others poetry. All shared a handwritten message of hope. For instance, “You are loved,” “You’ve got this,” “This will pass,” and “We are praying for you.”
One card made by an elementary student read, “Stay safe and remember to love. Make sure you hold on to true friends and family during this tragedy. And listen to me, you are loved. You are going to be okay, and you have to stay peaceful.”
Lee says being a part of something so positive was good medicine for his firefighters, who had endured a tough week.
“This made their day to be able to do something that brought joy to others,” Lee sats. “The firefighters were all smiles.”
So, too, were the Cumberland Trace employees like Hardeep Kaur and Varina Griffin, who gratefully accepted not only the cards but also a donation from Jack’s Donuts of 150 bags of doughnut holes.
“Buffy Lutzke with Jack’s Donuts is one of our members and she wanted to do something, too,” Lee says.
The Plainfield Kiwanis Club plans to continue making cards and deliver them weekly to other long-term senior living facilities in the area such as Sugar Grove Assisted Living Facility.
“We had a lot of kiddos and grandkids involved in this,” Lee adds. “I look forward to expanding this service project in the coming weeks.”
