Students at Holy Cross and St. Benedict Secondary School in the southend of Greater Sudbury teamed up to make seniors smile this Valentine’s Day.
How? With a simple act of using creativity, imagination, and love, students handcrafted beautiful, heartfelt greeting cards to lift the spirits of residents at Finlandia Village, in the Hoivakoti Nursing Home located in Minnow Lake.
After being created, the cards were hand delivered and distributed to residents at Finlandia on Monday, February 14th, just in time for Valentine’s Day.
Upon receiving the messages, Finlandia extended their appreciation for the generous act and shared a huge thank you to students, staff, and volunteers for the coordination of the project.
“Thank you so much for all the awesome Valentine’s day cards. The students did a really great job, and the residents were smiling from ear to ear. They sure made Valentine’s day extra special for our folks!” – Jeanna de la Morandiere, Finlandia
To protect the health and safety of residents, the ongoing pandemic has forced long-term care homes to restrict visitors, and in doing so, many seniors have been challenged in living in isolation for almost two years.
Laura Kuzenko is the Principal of St. Benedict Secondary School. “This is another example of students showing care and concern for others and embodying the virtue of compassion,” she says.
Sudbury Catholic Schools strives to teach children what it means to live virtuously and give them an opportunity to experience those virtues through their education. The virtues of the month program is created to empower the entire community of students, staff, and volunteers to live out their highest values everyday.
To help this process along, each month we bring our attention to focus on a new virtue so students can learn the meaning of it, and have time to practice it in action. As the virtue of the month for February is compassion, it is with great joy we see our students practicing and understanding the root of what this virtue really means.
In addition to making cards for seniors, all three of St. Benedict’s Learning Support Centre classes worked hard to make Valentine’s Day cards Veterans Affairs Canada (VAC). VAC invites Canadian schools, individuals and organizations to make Valentines for Vets and then distributes the valentines to Veterans in long-term care facilities across the country by February 14.
