It’s Club Day 2, and students file into the lecture hall, where Jack Johnson plays from a speaker surrounded by colorful sheets of cardstock, markers galore, and other crafting materials. An array of homemade cookies decorate the front table, and groups of students are clustered about the rows of seats, conversing and decorating cards together.
This is the scene of a meeting for the Letters of Love club, a chapter of the nonprofit organization that promotes kindness and love through sending cards to patients in pediatric hospitals worldwide. The first chapter was established in 2018 by founder and president Grace Berbig, and has now grown to have 284 active chapters across the country, including the one at RHS, which was started in 2023 by then senior Paige Lawrence.
Running one of the most popular clubs at RHS takes a dynamic team, one led this year by President Delaney Neal, 12. A past member of the club, her passion and professionalism is evident in the efforts she puts toward every aspect of Letters of Love, from text messages to dessert recipes.
“A week before a meeting, I’ll send out a text to all my officers, and give them jobs. I tell them to make cookies, and I whip up a slideshow before Club Day, and it’s not really stressful at all – it’s just fun,” said Neal.
The concept of the club is simple: students use a variety of craft supplies (supplied by psychology teacher and club sponsor Carla Jurgensmeyer) to compose cards of their own design for ill children in hospitals, who will be receiving them. For a club that seems effortless to prepare for, there are many moving parts ranging from the club playlist to communications with corporate. Card contents need to be reviewed before they are shipped to headquarters, and close checks are made to ensure that the artwork and messages created by students follow organization guidelines.
“We specifically do not mention them being sick, because some of them are not going to get better; some are terminally ill, and so none of the letters are, you know, ‘hope you get well soon’ or anything like that. It’s more just knowing that you know they’re special and that people care about them,” said Jurgensmeyer.
While ideas like this might seem obvious in composing cards to those sick in pediatric hospitals, the club ensures that there is professionalism in the conduction and execution of the meetings and cards produced. LOL is well-equipped, possessing over 16 officers, with jobs covering content checking, supply management, social media creation, and more.
“I work to create an online environment that is welcoming, one that informs the public eye on what we do and why – I love showing our followers sights from our meetings where people send kind words to people they don’t even know,” said Aubrey Lampson, 12, Letters of Love social media co-manager.
With the majority of the officers being seniors this year, questions arise regarding the future of the club and the legacy it will leave on students at RHS.
Club President Delaney Neal said she hopes the club will continue to grow larger, and become more prominent in the years following her graduation, carrying on its principle of touching lives locally and globally.
One thing is certain: Letters of Love has introduced a new sense of community at RHS, providing students space to decompress, munch on a cookie, and even jam out, all while simultaneously creating a meaningful message for a cause larger than themselves.
“Letters of Love has such a profound impact on RHS because it allows for anyone and everyone to share kindness with the world easily, in a different way than they would normally. It brings those with a kind heart together!” said Lampson.
