At St. Luke Parish in McLean, senior adults and third-graders have an engaging method of communicating with one another. They have become pen pals.

Each Wednesday, the senior adults meet in the parish hall for a few hours, as they have done for many years. During that time the letters they have written to their student pen pals, and vice versa, are exchanged by a St. Luke School fifth-grader, who carries the correspondence back and forth.

Judy St. Andre, a third-grade teacher at the school for 15 years, said the program between the "Senior Adult Pen Pals" and her students was started in the late 1980s. She and then-parish priest Father Steve Altman, who was very involved with the seniors, thought the two age groups would benefit from getting to know each other better and came up with the idea.

"I believe it was the work of God," said St. Andre.

As part of the program, the elder and younger pen pals meet three to four times during the academic year for lunch at the school. "The students’ moms do a wonderful job providing a meal in the school gym," said St. Andre. A few of these gatherings occur in October, around Halloween, and in February, near Valentine’s Day. The pen pals also occasionally get together off-site.

"We just completed a beautiful field trip to the John Paul II Cultural Center in Washington," said St. Andre.

Diana Keenan, Blanche Moore and Catherine O’Sullivan are the leaders in the senior adults group. Pointing out that many of the senior adults’ children and grandchildren live far away, O’Sullivan said, "the program has been good for everyone."

At the start of every school year, St. Andre and another teacher "say a prayer over the names" and match the senior adults with the students. The seniors include some couples and many individuals, most of whom are women. Though the pen pals are paired for only one school year, sometimes they wish to continue the correspondence beyond the time frame and do so on their own.

St. Andre said that some of the friendships that form out of the program are "precious." The pals appreciate seeing each other at Mass and out in the community and may give small gifts back and forth. "There’s a lot of love going on there."

She mentioned that in the 1990s she asked then-President George Bush and his wife, Barbara, to come to their luncheon. St. Andre and the students wrote to the president, inviting him and said they were praying for him. He was unable to attend, but wrote a wonderful letter to the kids, she said.