Letters to break the isolation of our elders

This Thursday, April 4, Lucie Reyx embarks on a bicycle tour of France and Belgium to meet our senior citizens. In civic service with 1 Lettre 1 Sourire since last October, she will carry our colors until the end of July accompanied by her bicycle. She will thus become our official representative, a roving letter carrier, promoting the epistolary link with our elderly and distributing letters in all the structures she passes through.
At each of her stops, she'll be organizing letter-writing workshops for schoolchildren in the morning, distributing kindly letters in the afternoon, and then exchanging ideas with seniors at intergenerational dinners and evenings in the evenings at the structures for the elderly that will be hosting her for the night.
Her Tour de France means  101 stages across France and Belgium, around 4,000 kilometers of cycling covered in 4 months, along which she will meet around 3,000 schoolchildren and 6,000 seniors.
The aim through this project is to combat social isolation via two main levers. Firstly, by creating intergenerational links: Lucie will indeed share convivial moments around workshops linked to the letter, inviting schoolchildren and seniors to take part together. Her aim is to create links between senior citizens' facilities and local schools, setting up twinning arrangements along the way. Secondly, Lucie will be sharing her journey throughout the four months, promoting the idea of maintaining intergenerational links with everyone she meets. If you'd like to keep up with her, feel free to follow her instagram account: @a.bicyclette_ !  

We teamed up with the Paris airports to have letters written to travelers passing through Roissy CDG and Orly airports.
Thousands of letters were written during the month of December. Travelers from all over the world offered us letters written in every language.
For 1 Lettre 1 Sourire, the festive season was the busiest time of the year for remedying the isolation of the elderly. Greeting cards, letters, gifts... we tried to put everything in place to bring maximum happiness and smiles. 

1 Lettre 1 Sourire visited an engineering school in Lille, ICAM, from November 13 to 17, to run an intergenerational week. 
During the week, senior citizens were invited to come and follow the students' classes and take part in activities devised for the occasion. From fanfare and bingo to guided tours and gourmet coffees, the seniors came together to share a convivial and festive moment.
We welcomed no less than twenty seniors, all of whom came with enthusiasm and were greeted with smiles.
It was a complete immersion for our seniors and a real moment of pleasure to see them so delighted at the idea of going back to school for a few hours.

1 Lettre 1 Sourire was present on Saturday, October 28 at the Dictée pour tous at the Forum des Halles in Paris.
All the association members present, volunteers, writers and Miss Ile-de-France got out their best pens for the dictation as well as to write their beautiful letters.
A total of around forty letters were collected during the day.
These letters will soon be distributed in establishments welcoming the elderly. 

1Lettre1Sourire is pleased to announce that the association is once again working on a multitude of projects. We continue to travel throughout France. We've had the pleasure of setting up several writing workshops in various structures for the elderly, as well as at forums: Le Vésinet, Captain Cause, the EHPAD Jean Ferdinand de St Jean, etc... 
Recently our team had the pleasure of taking part in "En baskets avec Paulette" and manned a stand under the tent of Malakoff Humanis, our partner. 
We collected many valuable letters, to accompany our isolated seniors who rely so much on our involvement.

1 Lettre 1 Sourire is still going strong, and since last time, here's our news:
-Dozens of new ambassadors and volunteers have signed up alongside us 🫂
-Hundreds of workshops have been held all over France, and especially in our partner regions: Nord, Calvados, Eure, Orne, Yvelines, Ille-et-Vilaine, Gironde, Rhône and Essonne ✍🏻
-The thousands of letters were sent to us aimed at the elderly 💌
-Thebillions of smiles were created! 😄
We'll leave you with some photos of the beautiful actions carried out over the last two months. 
Thank you all for the support, the fight against isolation of the elderly continues ✊🏼 

Last week, 1 Lettre 1 Sourire teams invited themselves to the SPI Dauphine challenge!
The 42nd edition of the student regatta took place in Menton, in the south of France.
We held a friendly stand for a week, where many students stopped by to write letters and discuss our missions.
We leave with a hundred caring letters to be distributed to elderly people in EHPAD and at home in the Nord department, as well as dozens of young people motivated to get involved alongside us!" 
Thank you to SPI Dauphine for this great invitation, as well as to our patrons for these opportunities. 
Together, let's keep writing letters!  

Our association 1 Lettre 1 Sourire intervened from April 3 to 7 in the Calvados region to offer intergenerational actions aimed at breaking the isolation of the elderly. 

On markets, in schools, within EHPAD and résidences séniors and even directly at home, our civic services aimed to spread the word about our mission and draw smiles on faces thanks to letters written by young people aged 13 to 30.
Writing letters in the morning and distributing them in the afternoon: a short circuit of the letter that creates smiles and brings happiness to children and the elderly alike, all day long.
It also means feeling the importance of our mission from 8am until we fall asleep!
A week under the sign ofencounters, exchange, and above all benevolence.
All these great actions have been possible thanks to all of you: writers, partners, donors, volunteers, ambassadors...
So once again: THANK YOU💛

A big thank you to all of you for your support.
In this month of March, 1 Lettre 1 Sourire celebrates its 3rd anniversary... !
 
In 3 years we've:
- sent 1 million letters to our 1600 partner residences for seniors and at home;
- organized 120 intergenerational workshops in schools, universities, companies and seniors' residences all over France and in neighboring countries;
- gathered hundreds of ambassadors and committed volunteers;
- created millions of smiles thanks to your support! 
Together, let's continue Operation Smile, you write!" 
Continue to support 1 Letter 1 Smile, we need you!" 
You can contact us at the following e-mail address: [email protected]