SALT LAKE CITY — The idea of “If you can’t come visit us, we will come to you” blossomed at J.E. Cosgriff Memorial Catholic School as a way for students to keep in touch with their loved ones throughout the confinements due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The school has sent hundreds of postcards designed and written by the students to their grandparents and other loved ones since October, the month during which the grandparents traditionally would have been celebrated at the school.
“Normally on Grandparents Day they would come to brunch; they would have been served by the older kids, enjoyed a concert and visited their grandkids in the classroom,” said Kassi Mancini, the school’s development director. However, the brunch was cancelled out of concern for the safety and wellbeing of all.
“We at Cosgriff have always had a wonderful relationship with our grandparents and special friends; they are a strong and very involved group, so we wanted something that would keep connecting them with the kids,” Mancini said.
When the idea of sending personalized postcards was born, Grace Cier, the art teacher, came up with a different design for each grade.
“Each class did a different postcard based on a theme tied to our curriculum so they were all tied to the art class,” Mancini said.
Each of the student’s cards was made into a postcard, to which the faculty added a poem. In October, the school sent about 400 cards throughout the United States and to six different countries.
“Ms. Cier did the same thing for the Christmas cards – coming up with a unique design for each grade. She also had each child write a note inside the cards for the people they wanted to send the cards to. We mailed around 600 cards all over the planet,” Mancini said.
A team comprised of graduated students and staff scanned the art work, addressed each postcard, and stamped them. The cards also were quarantined before being sent.
“We quarantined the cards before sending them so we made sure we were not sending germs to their homes,” said Mancini, adding that it took many hours of detailed work trying to make sure all the cards went out to the right special people, but “the messages of thanks we have received made all of the hard work worth it.”
Messages such as “I love you GG, I can’t wait to sleep at your house again” and “Happy holydays grandpa and grandma I love you so much, love you to the moon and back” were written by the students, making the project a new school tradition, because officials plan to keep the cards going out. Students from toddlers to eighth-graders are planning a Spring Easter card, and a summer one will be sent at the end of the school year.
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