by
Joyce Quach
| Dec 23, 2020
This year, the holiday season looks very different. Due to the current health crisis, many of us are spending holidays away from our families and loved ones.
To spread a little cheer this holiday season, we wanted to do something extra special to keep our communities connected. The Library invited children to create a “Holiday Hello” that we could share with seniors and older adults in the community and we were absolutely overwhelmed by the response that we received. We received over 2,500 unique “Hellos” including letters, cards, and art projects.
We would like to thank the many children and families who participated as well as the schools who enthusiastically offered to bring this project into their classrooms. We would like to specifically acknowledge with great gratitude: Baker Drive Elementary School, École Glen Elementary School, École Panorama Heights, École Porter Street Elementary School, École Rochester Elementary School, Hazel Trembath Elementary, Leigh Elementary School, Lord Baden Powell Elementary, Miller Park Community School, Montgomery Middle School, Parkland Elementary, Riverview Park Elementary School, St. Patrick Elementary, Summit Middle School, and William F. Davidson Elementary. However, we know that we are missing a few of our community champions.
Although we promoted this project to children, we were delighted to hear from adults who also wanted to contribute something to the project. We wish we could personally thank the kind individual or group who hand-made over 70 potholders for local seniors.
Thanks to these individuals, families and schools, we were able to send a special Holiday Hello to seniors and older adults all over Coquitlam. We sent special care packages to individuals at several senior-living residences and care centres. However, we were also able to reach seniors still living in our community thanks to the City of Coquitlam Meals for Seniors Service. We provided 120 care-packages that their amazing team of volunteers delivered with their meal deliveries in the weeks leading up to Christmas.
This project has felt like an enormous labour of love that brought together so many people in our community. Emma, one of the participating children, wrote, “Have a wonderful holiday at your house. I wish [you’re] safe and feel okay. And I wish this little hello can bring a little happiness to your family.” This project has been an absolutely joy to work on – we hope that we were also able to share that joy with our contributors and recipients.
Watch our compilation video to see all the contributions we received!