In the age of e-mail, Twitter and Facebook, getting a letter that doesn't contain a bill is a rare treat.

For Northfield second-grader Chloe Rozga, getting a letter means she's hearing from her senior pen pal who participates in the Reasons to Write program—a Common Good Retired Seniors Volunteer Program (RSVP).

About two months ago, Northfield senior volunteers 55 years old and older were matched with 26 Sibley Elementary second-graders to exchange letters each week.

The Reasons to Write pen pal program introduces elementary students to the lost art of letter writing while engaging them with a local senior. In its third year, the program currently alternates every fall and spring between Sibley Elementary second-grade classrooms taught by Peg Witt and Maribeth Beck.

When asked her age and about the program, Rozga proudly states that she's 7 1/2 years old and that she just loves getting letters from her pen pal, Solveig Beckmen—a retired senior living at Kildahl Park Pointe, a Northfield active adult living cooperative.

In letters to Beckmen, the young Rozga shared personal details you would offer a new friend including her likes, dislikes, hair color, favorite foods and favorite color.

"I told her all kinds of stuff," said Rozga with the breathlessness of one who just shared her innermost thoughts. After writing to her pen pal for several weeks, she said she also liked learning more about her penpal and her grandchildren.

Beckmen was matched with two pen pals this fall and delighted in reading details about their lives, she said.

The letters offered details of pressing matters on the minds of the students such as what they will dress as for Halloween. Beckmen shared details of her own life including being a mother of four children, two of whom live in Sioux Falls, S.D.

Included in her letters was the phonetic spelling of not only her first name, but for the word "Sioux" so the children could properly pronounce both. She also told her pen pals about the waterfall in Sioux Falls that she finds to be beautiful and shared details about her grandchildren.

"I'm so amazed at how well these second-graders write," said Beckmen. "They express strong ideas and have a good vocabulary. Writing letters is so useful and valuable."

The teachers involved in the program also see the benefits of letter writing within their classrooms and its value beyond the classroom.

"This is a great program," said Witt, a second-grade teacher. "Academically, [the students] experience writing a friendly letter and they get to know another caring adult in the community. The information [they share] is really precious and includes anything from pets or hobbies to favorite sports teams."

Every Friday during the program, students are joined in the classroom by college-age volunteers who assist them in preparing the letters and help them with spelling.

The children receive colorful stationery and envelopes provided by Common Good RSVP, the program sponsoring Reasons to Write, and set to work at penning a letter for their pen pals. The letters are then sorted in color-coded folders indicating to which retirement community they will be delivered.

It takes several working components to make this program a success and the oversight offered by the program's coordinator, Deb Johnson-Schad, and the college volunteers is instrumental in making the process flow.

Johnson-Schad and the college volunteers gather the student's letters and deliver them to the respective retirement communities at 5 p.m on Fridays. The seniors then write letters in return over the weekend and Johnson-Schad picks them up and delivers them to the students on Mondays.

"That's the trickiest part of this program," said Johnson-Schad. "If the letters were mailed, there would be no guarantee they would arrive in a timely fashion or [that the senior volunteers] would write back right away. We needed control over that piece of the program so we could be sure that each child receives a letter at the same time."

After eight weeks of exchanging letters, the Reasons to Write volunteers and their second-grade pen pals meet for cookies and face-to-face interaction.

Held at the Three Links Conservatory recently, the 26 second-grade students from Beck's class read poetry to the retired volunteers as a way to show their gratitude for the intergenerational interactions by mail.

"We have many volunteers from Millstream Commons, Three Links Apartments as well as the Northfield community at large who participate in the program," said Johnson-Schad. "Three Links is a partner in the program providing all the food and beverages for this event."

The Northfield Healthy Community Initiative also provides a mini-grant to pay for the student's transportation to the meet-and-greet event, she said. At Friday's event, Johnson-Schad rewarded each student with a bookmark from Common Good RSVP for participating.

Johnson-Schad is currently working on the possibility of a winter pen pal program for third-grade students at Bridgewater Elementary in conjunction with the Northfield Senior Center if she is able to recruit enough senior volunteers.

Seniors associated with the Northfield Senior Center who are not snowbirds and would like to participate this winter can click here for more information about the program or they can contact Johnson-Schad directly by e-mail.