Pen Pals 4 Change
the founder

It started with
one letter to France.

Avleen, founder of Pen Pals 4 Change

Avleen, founder

In third grade, Avleen had a pen pal in France. She still remembers the moment she opened the first letter. The paper smelled different. The handwriting was beautiful. And tucked inside was a pressed flower.

She didn’t know at the time that it would turn into something. It was just a letter from a stranger who felt, by the end of it, less like one.

That feeling stuck with her for years.

why

Why she started it.

As a sophomore at Marquette, Avleen was thinking about kids who might never get that experience. Not because they couldn’t write a good letter. Just because nobody had set it up for them.

She reached out to Pleasant View Elementary in Milwaukee. The teacher said yes. Twenty-something third graders wrote their first letters. A few weeks later, they got ones back.

Some kids read their letters three times at recess. One kid asked if they could write again the next day. They couldn’t, but they could in two weeks. That became the schedule.

How it grew.

2022

Pen Pals 4 Change starts at Pleasant View Elementary with one class of 3rd and 4th graders. Avleen runs the first letter day herself with stationery from the dollar store.

2023

The program runs a full school year for the first time. More than 200 letters delivered. Avleen starts bringing a volunteer or two to help on letter days.

2024

Southwood Glen Elementary joins the program. For the first time, kids at two different schools are writing to each other. The letters go both ways.

now

Two schools, one mailbag, every other Friday. Still run by Avleen and a small group of volunteers. Still on paper, still in their own handwriting.

in her own words

USA
I still have the pressed flower somewhere.
I don’t know why it meant so much.
Maybe because she didn’t have to include it.
That’s what letters do, I think. They let you
be a little more than you meant to be.

I want that for kids here.
Avleen

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