Showing Love for Our Elders One Letter at a Time

There is a special bond between the old and young. You can see the joy on a grandparent’s face when a grandchild bounds into the room and runs forward for a big hug. And the gleam in the grandchild’s eyes when a grandparent beams with pride over a card trick the child has performed a hundred times.

As a young boy, Jacob Cramer, who is now 22 and a preschool teacher, cherished this connection with his grandparents. After his beloved grandpa passed away in 2010, Jacob began volunteering as the “bingo boy” at his local senior center.

AARP Membership— $12 for your first year when you sign up for Automatic Renewal

Get instant access to members-only products and hundreds of discounts, a free second membership, and a subscription to AARP the Magazine.

Join Now

As he got to know the residents, he realized many never had visitors and some rarely heard from their families. Understanding their isolation, he began writing letters to his older friends, bringing joy to everyone who received one. In turn, the letter writing helped reduce the loneliness he felt from missing his grandfather.

Love For Our Elders was born in 2013, when Jacob was 13. Today, there are members in 32 high school and college campus chapters who volunteer in senior communities and write letters.

“I started this love letter initiative as a lonely middle schooler,” Jacob told AARP Experience Counts . Since then, it's become a beautiful community that has connected with our elders through more than 300,000 letters. I'm so proud of that. A single letter can change someone's world.”

Love For Our Elders founder Jacob Cramer.

Courtesy: Love For Our Elders

This was the case for Janna Clark’s mother, whose life was transformed by receiving letters. Before this happened, Janna’s heart would break every time her mother opened the mailbox at her assisted living place, only to discover “nothing in here but junk, again.”

 “I couldn't have ever imagined what an impact finding Jacob and his organization would bring,” Janna said.  Trying out one of the features of Love For Our Elders, Janna nominated her mom for a letter-writing campaign. The missives poured in.

“I expected her to get 15-20 letters, but overall, Mom probably got nearly 1,000,” Janna said. “Truly a cross-section of American humanity.”,

Natasha Rosenberg also credits the organization with changing the life of her mother, who lives in Australia. Natasha said she feels guilt as immense as the distance between them, even more so since she recently placed her mother in an aging care facility.

Letters sent through the Love For Our Elders campaign.

Love For Our Elders

“When younger, I was in a Girl Club, and we would take the time to write a letter each meeting that the Leader would then deliver to an aged person’s home,” Natasha said. “At the end of the year, we would visit that home and it stuck with me how alone they feel.”