DURHAM- Love For Our Elders (LFOE) is officially up and running as the University of New Hampshire’s (UNH) newest organization on campus. The two month process to create the UNH branch came to fruition on April 3. 

Love For Our Elders is a national organization with a goal to combat loneliness among senior citizens in nursing homes and long term care facilities by spreading joy in their communities. 

“They have a lot of stuff that they do, like advocating for elders, writing letters of love and just representing senior loneliness as like a big humanitarian problem,” said Isabelle Katz, club president. 

Katz knew she wanted to bring a new organization to campus but was not sure what. Once she came across LFOE and realized the connection it would bring to UNH, it was an easy decision for her, especially as someone with an interest in geriatric studies. 

“I thought it’d be such a fun club, where we could all be social and do some good,” said Katz. “It’s kind of like a symbiotic relationship because you get to write to them about what’s going on in your life, which is, you know, it’s like journaling. It’s good for you.” 

The club meets on the second and last Tuesday of every month. They spend the meetings writing letters to the elderly people that were nominated by their community, then chosen by LFOE because they need extra kindness in their life. 

“We are given the names of six seniors every month, and a bunch of information…So we get personal information about them and get to connect with them…then we always try to make the letters as positive as possible and uplifting,” said Katz. 

Unlike a pen pal style letter system, LFOE does not get responses from the recipients. Therefore, they do not ask any questions. Topics in the letters include information about the student’s life and relating to the interests of the senior citizen. 

The organization then sends the letters out using funding for stamps. All branches of LFOE get the same people, resulting in the senior getting anywhere between 100 to 200 letters. 

Each letter a student writes results in 20 minutes of community service, no matter how long they actually stay at the meeting.

“That’s the really awesome part. So if you come to the meeting and you write four letters, then you have like an hour of community service, even if you’re only there for 20 minutes,” said Katz. 

While the organization is still new to UNH, they are already seeing positive results from the community. Originally, Katz and the executive board only expected to have 10 to 15 people at the first meeting, but instead were met with 35. However, that number shortly jumped to 52 members.

Katz looks forward to the future of LFOE and is thankful for the people who have contributed to the success of the new club. 

“None of this would be possible without members and the people who write the letters and the people who helped me get this up and running. Like I couldn’t be more grateful for that because there’s no way I could do this alone,” said Katz.