With social distancing measures in place, senior Gretchen Pauli found it hard to connect with her community, and was motivated to create the Card Writing Club at La Salle.

 “I feel like that is a super important connection to have with our community, to show everyone that we’re still all together, even during this time,” she said. “I decided to make our card crafting club so that way we could put a little bit of our creative talents back into community outreach.”

Pauli’s intentions when starting the club were to get as many students as possible involved. While she believes that community outreach can sometimes be too intimidating for some people, she said that making cards is a great way to stay involved during the pandemic. 

“This is just a really great way to remotely do this because people can make their card at home, and [do] social distancing drop-offs,” she said.

One of Pauli’s biggest goals for the club this year is to connect with “all different people from all different walks of life,” she said, emphasizing that people involved in the club can be from inside or outside of the La Salle community.

Each month, Pauli attempts to center her focus for the club around a theme that relates back to what is going on in the world.

For example, in October, the theme and recipient of the cards was firefighters, which Pauli said was inspired by the aftermath of the forest fires in Oregon. Throughout November, the club made cards for those in addiction rehabilitation with the help of Ms. Sarah Maher, La Salle’s director of service. In the following months, cards will also be created for cancer patients.

The Card Writing Club meets once at the beginning of every month, on Zoom, to talk about the month’s theme, as well as other plans and goals. They also congregate again at the end of each month to discuss and organize a drop-off time.

When members of the club drive by school to drop off cards, Pauli collects the cards with a mask on and frequent hand sanitizer usage. After the drop off is complete, Pauli allows the cards to sit for a few days before she goes through them to check for grammatical errors.

When the club makes cards for certain organizations, such as the fire department back in October, Pauli reaches out and checks to make sure that the organization is comfortable with the idea. Then, she usually proceeds by making a plan that ensures a safe and socially distanced way to drop off the cards.

Pauli said that it can be challenging sometimes to balance schoolwork, a job, and being a member on the dance team, as the club keeps her busy. “I’m sending out Schoology messages for meetings, organizing the drop off and pick up times, and reaching out to different people,” she said.

One of the bigger challenges Pauli experiences with this club is staying in communication with everyone. She said that it’s hard to make sure everyone is “in the loop” and that every member knows when to drop off their cards at school. 

While the club has a theme for each month, there are only a few additional requirements when writing cards. “I just ask that they write a few sentences as a note to whoever we’re making the cards for and sign their name,” she said.

Although Pauli’s club meets remotely, said that she wishes they could meet in person more often. “I had a station set up at the freshman and senior community days,” she said. “It was really fun because I got to meet all the freshmen.”

Before more restrictions were enforced due to the rising numbers of COVID-19 in Oregon, Pauli was looking forward to the possibility of meeting in small groups in the maker space on campus. 

Pauli said that Ms. Carie Coleman had originally set up times for small groups of people to work in the maker space, but due to tighter regulations, that isn’t an option at the moment.

Although the club is only online right now, Pauli hopes to continue encouraging community connection and creativity through her club. “I really want people to have their creativity shine through,” she said.