Many students throughout their years at Oak Park Unified School District have written letters that are meant to be mailed to them when they graduate high school or after they graduate high school. This project has been happening for a while in the district and teachers have found different ways to send the letters to the students.

“I don’t remember exactly when I started this — probably 2002 or 2003. Most sixth graders have never addressed an envelope, so it became a life lesson,” sixth-grade humanities teacher Suzanna Shea said. 

At Oak Park High School, the idea started with English Jan Willis. Willis completed a similar assignment in her freshman year, so she decided to do the same for her students so they could experience the same feelings.

“When I began teaching freshmen at OPHS many years ago, I whited out my name and the date/year on the handout.  Then I xeroxed the same handout from 1975 and gave it to my freshmen.  The longer the letter, I told them, the more you will enjoy it.  Some began putting money in the envelopes as an extra surprise for themselves,” Willis said.

Shea’s sixth grade assignment has students write a letter to their senior selves and address an envelope for the first time. The letters are handwritten so that students do not have digital access to them and get the feeling of opening something new. 

“I usually get some hysterical emails from the kids. They are mostly astounded at their handwriting. It’s getting harder to do this as kids want to type up their letters, but that doesn’t work because then they’ll have digital access,” Shea said. “This year I am asking them to write the letters at home and bring them to MCMS when they return their textbooks — whenever that may be.” 

In high school, freshmen do a similar assignment in Kathie Leggett’s English class where they write a letter and attach an assignment as well. For the Class of 2020, it was the “20 Truths about Being a Freshman.” Leggett started this assignment with the Class of 2019, her first year teaching freshmen. 

“What is fascinating [is that] students always give me a hard time about putting on a stamp.

They think they are going to be at OPHS until they graduate,” Leggett said.

Leggett has been working to check all of the addresses of the letters and mail them out. She has had to donate some postage for new addresses or packages that are too heavy. Shea is hand-delivering her sixth-grade letters to the class of 2020. When postage became too expensive, the high school used to pass them out but this year that will not be happening. She chose to drive around the ones closest to her and mail the rest out. 

“My son just received his in the mail today! I cannot express the joy and nostalgia it brought both of us. In a time where we are missing so many traditional memory-making opportunities with our seniors, I am so thankful for this act of dedication and kindness,” Oak Park High School parent Kimberly Wierenga wrote on Facebook.