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Write a letter to someone in isolation this holiday season

Revelstoke’s Free Arts in the Park program is collecting letters for seniors
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Revelstoke’s Free Arts Sessions in the Park program is collecting letters for isolated seniors this holiday season. The deadline to submit a letter is Dec. 8. (Submitted photo)

There is still time to give the gift of connection.

Revelstoke’s Free Art Sessions in the Park (FARTS) program is collecting letters to give to each senior at Mt. Cartier Court and several other isolated individuals through Community Connections. In total they need at least 52 letters, though, the more the merrier!

“The whole purpose of the event is to build community by looking out for the many seniors that live in Revelstoke that have been totally isolated from family and friends since the beginning of the pandemic,” said Jax Ie, one of the organizers of the program, in an email.

READ MORE: B.C. seniors suffer from isolation, depression in COVID-19

Letters must be submitted by Dec. 8 either via email to revelstokefarts@gmail.com or to the little Note-vember mailbox at the library. Ie said they will be screened and sent on Dec. 10, where they will be quarantined, to guarantee safety, before they are distributed.

Participants are asked not to include any identifying information in their letters, merely a first name and, if they would like a reply, the first initial of their last name. Replies are not guaranteed, however will be distributed at the FARTS in the Park programs on the first and third Saturday of the month at the library.

Kids under 18 who are participating must have a parent will our a waiver form that can be received via email or at the library.

Ie and Frank Madden, organizers of FARTS in the Park, said they have lots of suggestions if you don’t know what to write to a stranger.

One of their favourite suggestions is an imagination vacation. In her letter, Ie started with telling them that even though she doesn’t know them she, and the community, cares. Then she wrote a story about a time when she met a baby monkey in Malaysia and fed it a banana. She wrote the story as if her, and the reader, were there together and the monkey was cuddling them.

“I focused a lot on what I could feel with my senses and hopefully they will feel it too when they read it,” she said.

FARTS in the park is a free program based out of the library on the first and third Saturday of the month. Usually kids would come and make a craft, however at this point they are creating take-home art kits instead. The majority of the materials are second-hand or recycled and many are donations. For more information see the FARTS in the Park at facebook.com/fartsinthepark


 

@RevelstokeRevue
editor@revelstoketimesreview.com

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