Immersion students send caring cards to displaced Chez-Nous residents

Young French immersion students at Greenfield Elementary School in Summerside have helped brighten the day for some of the displaced residents of Le Chez-Nous community care home in Wellington.

Not long after the mid-January fire that damaged the residence and meant the seniors had to move to the Mill River Resort, more than 40 students worked together to create personalized "happiness cards."

Ann Gallant, a Grade 5 French immersion teacher at Greenfield, said the students were worried when they heard about the fire and immediately wondered what they could do to bring some brightness to the seniors.

Handmade cards were the answer.

"They made sure they had sunshine, they had some flowers; others just took the person's name and made a little poem. So little things like that that they did — they were very creative."

Successive classes of students at the school have been making connections with Chez-Nous residents for years now.  

Gallant got the idea to bring the young and old groups together as she visited her own mother, Louise Arsenault, at Chez-Nous. As part of their class activities, the students write and illustrate cards for one or two particular elders for occasions like Christmas and Valentine's Day.

Seniors who are able often respond with messages of their own. 

The post-fire cheer-up cards were recently delivered to the seniors temporarily staying at the resort in western P.E.I. 

Gallant said she would love to see other Island classes take on this kind of project to form friendships with seniors' homes in their own communities.

More from CBC P.E.I.