A letter-writing initiative offers a chance to connect some older residents with some fifth-graders during the upcoming school year, and perhaps even beyond that.

Central Iowa RSVP conducts the pen pal program every year.

“It’s just a longstanding program that provides benefits to the students,” said Becky Koppen, a volunteer coordinator for Central Iowa RSVP. “They learn the letter-writing process, they learn how to communicate with someone they have never met before.”

Teachers, she added, wouldn’t make time for the program if they did not think it was valuable.

Koppen said she is looking for some volunteer letter writers to meet the demand because there is a larger than usual fifth-grade class at Southeast Valley Middle School in Burnside. She said there are 85 students in the class. She is looking for 15 senior adult letter writers willing to correspond with a fifth-grader.

The adults will be required to write at least one letter a month to the student they are matched with.

The letter exchange will go on throughout the school year. At the end of the school year, there will be a party at which the adults and the students will meet.

Koppen said sometimes the students and adults form friendships that last beyond the year of letter writing. She knows of instances in which students have invited their pen pal to their high school graduation.

To qualify for the program, an adult must be at least 55 years old and be able to pass a background check. To register to be a pen pal, an adult may call (515) 832-2525, go to the Central Iowa RSVP office at 308 Central Ave. in Fort Dodge, or visit www.rsvpvolunteer.org.