Page 6 THE SAUGUS ADVOCATE – FriDAy, MAy 26, 2023 A Pen pal Pizza Party Fourth-graders and Saugus seniors get to meet over lunch after sharing letters since last fall By Mark E. Vogler T he Saugus Senior Center threw a special pizza party for about 90 fourth-graders from the Belmonte STEAM Academy last Friday. But the pizza wasn’t the main course. The young students finally got to meet the pen pals they’ve been sharing letters with over the past several months. “Both groups have really been looking forward to this first-time meeting,” Fourth Grade Teacher Brigitte Vaudo said of the project she initiated last fall with the 22 students in her classroom. It spread to other classrooms at the Belmonte. “It’s not just about the pizza. It’s a learning experience for the students and it’s something that the seniors really enjoyed, too,” she said. “What you brought to our students was pure joy,” Vaudo later told the senior citizens. The vast majority of the pen pals who connected with the students are senior citizens who frequent the Saugus Senior Center. And there were a few middle-aged people involved, too. Town Manager Scott C. Crabtree, whose son Brody was among the Belmonte fourth-graders participating, exchanged several letters with 10-year-old Andrey Barbosa, one of the fourth-graders. “We got to talk about our family history and where our ancestors are from,” Crabtree said. Andrey got to learn the important role that his pen pal plays in Saugus. “He makes choices for the town,” he said of Crabtree. In an era when interpersonal communications is dominated by texts and emails, Crabtree called it “a great exercise that gets kids to think about what they’re going to write.” “It’s so different these days in the way we communicate with each other. Not a lot of people take the time to write letters. So, this was a great experience for these kids,” he said. Vaudo planned and organized “The Student and Senior Pen Pal Project” – a special proPIZZA PARTY | SEE PAGE 16 Student pen pal artist Amelia (left) with one of the drawings she did of her pen pal Joanie Allbee, which now hangs on Joanie’s refrigerator. (Saugus Advocate photo by Mark E. Vogler) NO GENERATION GAP HERE: Left to right: 10-year-old Scott Brennan and 99-year-old Annette Slocomb enjoyed a pizza lunch together last Friday, meeting for the first time after being pen pals for several months. (Saugus Advocate photo by Mark E. Vogler) Fourth-grader Samantha Williams (left) with her pen pal, Cheryl Roberto, a longtime outreach worker at the Saugus Senior Center (Saugus Advocate photo by Mark E. Vogler)
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