Caring Cards
ADAMS TWP — Reva Kalbhor was thoughtful enough to raise her hand during her Advanced English class.
Ever since, the Mars Area High School freshman has been hard at work lifting the spirits of nursing home residents.
Jennifer DiSanti, her Advanced English teacher, talked with her students before Thanksgiving about how so many of them have elderly relatives and grandparents who they would not be able to see for Thanksgiving. She said that reaching out to them with a phone call or card in the mail would brighten their day.
“My teacher wanted to make cards for people in nursing homes in general and was looking for volunteers to help,” Reva said. “I raised my hand.
“Some of those people, no one ever comes to see them. We wanted them to know people care.”
Some students wound up making cards for residents at St. John Community, a senior life community in Mars, in time for Thanksgiving.
Reva decided to take it one step further.
“Reva reached out to me and said she wanted to do a similar project on a larger scale for the upcoming winter holidays,” DiSanti wrote in a statement. “She got in touch with the same nursing home to make the arrangements to deliver the cards.
“I know she has worked so hard on this project, and I'm so touched by the generosity and thoughtfulness she and her classmates have shown.”
St. John Community has 108 residents. Reva has personally made 75 cards and enlisted the help of friends and family to get more done.
As of Sunday, 89 cards had been made with delivery to the St. John Community slated for this week.
“She wants to make sure every resident there receives a card in time for Christmas,” Chetan Kalbhor, Reva's mother, said.
Reva has handcrafted each card. She includes some information about herself in each one, along with kind Christmas wishes.
The designs on the cards are often different.
“I've gone on the internet for design ideas and just thought of some of them, maybe from cards I've seen,” Reva said.
She's been spending two hours per day — usually right after school — creating the cards.
Avani Salunke, a Seneca Valley senior, made 10 cards to help her out.
“We've been friends since childhood,” Reva said. “My mother and father have helped out too.”
But it's been Reva who has spearheaded the project.
“I'm always proud of her, but for her to do this shows her heart is in the right place at Christmas,” her mother said.
“They can't get out, so this brings a little Christmas to them,” Reva said. “I put in the cards what activities I do at school, just an idea of who I am.
“I hope some of them write back. But if they open the card and it makes them smile, it's all worth it.”
