Students at Robinson Elementary School in Dawson County recently made over 150 handmade Valentine’s Day cards for patients at Wellstar North Fulton Hospital, according to school officials.
Robinson Elementary Principal Page Arnette said that the idea for the cards started when fifth grade teacher Jennifer Wooten was talking to one of the student’s moms, who happens to work at Wellstar.
“Our grade leader for fifth grade was in contact with a parent of some students of ours, Heather, who works at Wellstar in the administrative office, and she had contacted Jennifer about the possibility of our students partnering with them to provide some encouragement to their patients,” Arnette said.
The teachers got busy organizing the card-making process, and students all across the school got busy making the cards. By Valentine’s Day, they had made more than 150 cards, which were delivered to Wellstar and placed on lunch trays for hospital patients.
“Staff there did a great job of making sure that every patient got one,” Arnette said. “Cause a lot of patients aren’t allowed to have visitors or to have them very often, so we just thought that this was a way that at least from afar we could encourage people around us.”
In addition to the Valentine’s cards, hospital staff and workers at Wellstar each received a treat bag from Dawson County High School’s Fellowship of Christian Athletes (FCA) program.
“The high school FCA group did treat bags for all the frontline workers there also,” Arnette said. “So the high school partnered with them to help encourage workers while we were working to encourage patients.”
This is the second time that students have made cards for Wellstar patients, she said. The students previously delivered cards to the hospital for patients at Christmas time too. And when that project went over well, administrators at the school decided to have the children do another card-making project for Valentine’s Day.
According to Arnette, the value and importance of giving back to the community is an important lesson she and other Dawson County school administrators hope to pass on to each student in their schools.
“In elementary school, we teach kids how to read, write and do math, but we also teach them how to be good friends and how to get along with each other and manage themselves,” Arnette said. “So we think it’s important to not only give them the skills they need academically, but we also think it’s important for them to learn how to serve others and the value of service to others in their community.”
Arnette said that the Dawson County community is a great environment for the children to learn these skills, because most community members exhibit these same values and are happy to help support the children who are learning how to serve.
“One of the things we love about our community is that it’s small and we still take care of each other, and so we want to make sure we continue to instill those kinds of values in our kids,” Arnette said. “And our community reciprocates that — we work hard to teach our kids that, but our community contributes right back so it’s a really great relationship.”