As Valentine’s Day rolls around, students gather around in the warrior room at Upper Campus to write letters to elderly in assisted living. Decorating letters with pink and red markers and stickers, students hoped to put a smile on faces of those who may not have family around to celebrate with.

This is MCHS’ third year of hosting this event. Illinois’ Senator Wilcox reached out to MCHS and other schools to see if they’re willing to host this holiday card drive. Students will receive community service hours from participating on Feb. 4 from 1:45-3 p.m.

“Every year for the last three years,” Director of Student Activities Mitch Stengel says, “we have made Valentine’s Day cards addressed to people essentially in assisted living homes in our area who maybe don’t have a family or loved ones near them on a day like this.”

Research done by the University of Michigan said, “One in three older adults (33%) reported infrequent contact (once a week or less) with people from outside their home in 2023 (14% once a week, 10% every 2–3 weeks, 9% once a month or less).”

“When there are opportunities to write cards after school on Wednesdays,” said junior Briana Freund. “My friends and I usually participate for some quick service hours, and it motivates us because it makes people happy.”

At MCHS, volunteering is a huge part of the school culture. It has become important to present students with opportunities in order to fulfill it.

“We can’t just tell kids to go out and volunteer,” Stengel says. “For some kids, it’s not super feasible, so bringing the volunteerism here in our buildings is really important to me and something I’ve been trying to ramp up.”

There are many holidays and times when people come together, but this holiday means more than most.

“Compared to other holidays,” Freund says. “It’s really about expressing how much you care about somebody compared to just writing a card that says ‘Happy Holidays.’”

Senator Wilcox is planning on giving the letters to local assisted living homes.

“I’m sure this affects them [those in assisted living] really well,” Stengel says. “This is something that Senator Wilcox has done for a couple of years now, and I’m sure that he has a great relationship with the assisted living homes.”

Although it may be a tough time for others, students should take advantage of the service hours for the good of their community.

“I think that more people should come to these things because it’s really nice to do something for the community and for people who don’t have anybody that’s there for them,” Freund says. “It’s nice to know that someone cares about you.”

It being a bigger holiday with loved ones, this was a great opportunity for students to do something good for their community. Using creativity and imagination, writing these letters with love made all the difference to assisted living homes.