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 opening that first letter — the paper smelled different, the handwriting was gorgeous, and someone had folded a pressed flower in with it.

She didn’t think much of it at the time, honestly. It was just mail from someone she’d never met. But she kept writing back, the letters kept coming, and somehow it stuck with her longer than she expected.

why

Why she started it.

As a sophomore at Marquette, Avleen kept thinking about kids who’d probably never get an experience like that — not because they couldn’t write a good letter, just because nobody had ever set it up for them.

She reached out to Pleasant View Elementary in Milwaukee, and the teacher said yes almost right away. About twenty third graders wrote their first letters, and a few weeks later, letters came 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

This was the first year the program ran a full school year, and Avleen started bringing along a volunteer or two to help out on letter days.

2024

Southwood Glen Elementary joined the program this year, and for the first time kids at two different schools were writing back and forth to each other.

now

These days it's three schools and one mailbag that moves every other Friday, still run by Avleen and a handful of volunteers, still all on paper.

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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