Letters in Motion is a student organization that writes and sends letters to children in need. Over the years, the recipients of these letters have included kids in Nepal, Kenya and West Tennessee.
Letters in Motion is currently working in partnership with the Carl Perkins Center for the Prevention of Child Abuse to distribute letters to children in the Jackson area.
The letters are given to children who come from difficult home situations such as domestic abuse and neglect. Each week members of the organization gather to write words of encouragement to let the recipients know that they are thought about and that they are loved. They make sure to inspire and uplift the kids to make them feel seen, known and cared for.
“Sending letters to these kids help them feel like somebody,” said Olivia Netland, freshman journalism major and president of Letters in Motion. “It shows them that they are not invisible.”
Letters in Motion gives Union students the opportunity to think about the needs of the community around them as well as an opportunity to meet those needs. It also gives students a chance to see things from a different perspective.
“The reason that it matters to me is because I can empathize with them,” said Netland. “I was adopted from China, and there I lived in an orphanage. If I had stayed there and grown up in the orphanage, I would have loved if someone had written me letters.”
Netland and the rest of the Letters in Motion members are hopeful that more students will join their organization so more letters can be shared. The members are also hopeful they will receive letters back from the children.
“I would love to eventually get letters back from the kids and have a personal connection with them,” said Lydia Burrell, junior art major. “It would be great to have a one-on-one relationship with a kid that you can become closer to.”
Letters in Motion meets every Tuesday at 6 p.m. in the Penick Academic Complex in room C-8.
