Pen Pal Club

Student Letters Continue Connecting Kernels

By Megan Luther

A gaggle of fifth graders approaches from the south. Another flock from the east. Each from their respective elementary schools, Longfellow and Gertie Belle Rogers.

In all, about 80 pre-teens converge at Northridge Park right next to Mitchell High School on this Monday afternoon. It’s hot for May. Sunny and 85 degrees. Many students scramble for shade under the trees as they wait. They are early and most of the high schoolers slowly trickle in.

This meet-up has been months in the making. Since the beginning of the school year, these 10- and 11-year-olds have been exchanging hand-written letters with high schoolers. Today is the first time the pen pals will meet in person. And it’s awkward.

Most of these students have no idea what their pen pals look like. And in 2025, a digital age where you typically see someone’s profile picture before you meet them, this is new.

One of the organizers, junior Jordan Platt, takes charge. “High schoolers, if you pen pal is with Longfellow, go find your pen pal!” A few teenagers groan.

“Sorry,” Jordan says. “Rip off the band-aid, you know? Go find, go talk, go mingle.”

Jordan looks for one of his fifth-grade pen pals, James Puetz. They meet and exchange hellos. I ask questions. James is a kid of few words, but he knows a little bit about Jordan through their letters. “He doesn’t like playing video games,” he tells me. “That’s kind of sad.”

And just when I thought I had this generation figured out, James adds, “It was fun to write.”

A writing assignment

The pen pal project started 12 years ago as the brainchild of two former Mitchell teachers, Carli Ellwein and Brett Flemmer.

Carli taught English at the high school, Brett fifth grade at Gertie Belle Rogers or GBR. They were dating and loved to lift weights together.

The two were in the high school weight room talking shop during summer break when Brett presented Carli with a problem.

 “I have students on my end where writing is a chore,” he remembers telling her. “It’s like pulling teeth. And you have students who need to refine their English skills. Is there something there? Could we create a partnership?”

That fall, Carli and Brett surveyed their students. What were their interests? Their personalities? Then the teachers played matchmaker. Carli would mention, “Oh, this person has a great heart and is very caring.” Brett would chime in, “Oh I have someone who could really use someone like that in their life.”

Before the first correspondence was exchanged, both Carli and Brett had to teach their students how to write a proper letter. Start with a greeting, and don’t spend the entire letter talking about yourself. “We should really start off this letter about caring about our pen pal,” Brett encouraged his students.

Neither classroom was particularly excited, but it was an assignment. And after the high schoolers wrote the first letters and addressed envelopes to their pen pals, Carli put them in a manila envelope and brought them home to Brett. About every two weeks this exchange would happen. In a short amount of time, the letters lengthened, and the students’ envelopes brightened with colorful doodles.

What started out as required writing developed into a lesson about human connections. And it wasn’t one-sided. High school students, who may not be natural leaders in their own classroom, took a starring role in their fifth-grade pen pals’ eyes. Those who played football had new little fans.

Sometimes the letters went deeper than last Friday’s game. One high school pen pal shared with her fifth grader her recent cancer diagnosis. In return, she received notes of encouragement from the elementary student, envelopes of empathy.

Before the first year was over, Carli was hearing from high school students outside of her class who wanted a pen pal. So the letter writing expanded from a classroom project to a high school club and included other fifth grade classes at GBR. The program grew each year with more teenagers volunteering to write 10- and 11-year-olds, sometimes taking on a second pen pal if there weren’t enough high school volunteers.

By 2019, Carli and Brett were married and left Mitchell to move closer to family in Aberdeen. Before she left, Carli handed the reigns over to fellow English teacher April Johnson, who continues to run the program today.

With help from high school student organizers, she expanded the program to include fifth grade classes at Longfellow and L.B. Williams elementary schools. This year April saw a record number of high schoolers sign up to be pen pals, around 125. Like many teachers who organize clubs, April is unpaid. But the mother of three is committed to the program.

“You’re building writing skills and making relationships and mentoring kids,” she says. “There’s a lot of value in that.”

When they come to pick up their letters, she overhears her high schoolers’ excitement about their pen pals’ latest news or a vicious game of tic-tac-toe.

Pen Pals is the high school’s most popular club, known for having a low time commitment and being a good addition to the resume.

Meet and greet

For the Longfellow and GBR fifth graders, the months-long correspondence ends today with the field trip to the high school — “Hello, nice to meet you” and “Goodbye, have a nice summer” all in the span of an hour. LB Williams students met with their pen pals last week. They all play mini golf in the gym with their pen pals and get a personal tour of the high school, topped off with a popsicle.

Jordan plans to participate in the program again next year. He wants to be an educator and says the insight into fifth grade minds is invaluable.

“I like making a difference in people’s lives, especially children’s lives, because they’re so fun to really connect with and communicate with,” he says.

Plus, Jordan knows how special it is for a fifth grader to get a hand-written letter from a high schooler. In 2019, he was a fifth grader at GBR when he was assigned a high school pen pal.

Megan Luther, a lifelong storyteller, has called Mitchell home for more than 30 years.