CHICAGO (WBBM NEWSRADIO) -- To help combat loneliness among seniors, which has increased substantially during the pandemic, a suburban senior center is encouraging people to send Valentine's Day cards.
Karie Van Grinsven is the program coordinator at the senior center run by the Village of Arlington Heights.
She said COVID-19 precautions have reduced the number of daily visitors from hundreds to a handful, and many seniors now have to resort to emails, texting, and video chats to get human interaction.
"We just are trying to come up with ideas that are 'out of the box' that aren't the same old same old, because we can no longer do the same old same old," Van Grinsven said.
So Van Grinsven is encouraging people to send Valentine's cards to the Arlington Heights Senior Center, and those that include their return addresses will get a card back.
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"It perhaps will bring them back to a day and time where the world wasn't all virtual, where it wasn't all emails and texts and going through a computer," she said.
She said it's a small gesture that can make a big difference in a senior's life.