Carlisle high school honor society runs pen‑pal program with Hamilton Elementary

The Carlisle Area School District’s National English Honor Society ran a pen‑pal program this year linking high school students with graders at Hamilton Elementary, and the initiative ended with a classroom visit and books for the elementary students.

The program connected roughly 50 newly inducted honor‑society students with Hamilton graders for monthly correspondence and a short in‑school visit. Sarah Claybill, an English teacher and the adviser for the National English Honor Society, told the board the project was designed to “focus on literacy, focus on community, and also just bring our honor society together.”

The nut graf: organizers said the project offered literacy practice and peer mentoring while giving both groups an authentic audience for writing. A grant from the National English Honor Society and support from the Bison Foundation paid for a book of each Hamilton student’s choice at the program’s end.

From the high school side, Claybill said the program drew a record number of new NEHS inductees — “almost 50” — and that the students were “so excited to send the letters to receive them.” She described the letters as more than a checkbox for service hours: “it wasn't just, kind of, a rubber stamp of community service hours, but we had this, kind of, joined purpose.”

Sherry Moyer, a teacher at Hamilton, said many of her graders had never written letters and learned basic conventions such as salutations and signatures during the exchange. She described the classroom visit: “They sat on the carpet together and they just, they started talking.”

A student speaker said the in‑person visit amplified the relationship built in writing. One NEHS student said the pairings were “very great” for helping younger students “get out of the bubble” and that the visit encouraged reading and further writing. Students on both sides reported informal activities during the visit — including a kickball game — and said they wished the interaction had lasted longer.

Teachers described plans to refine the program for next year with a short checklist for younger writers and more visit time. Claybill said she plans to expand the program to include additional elementary classes; a board member noted the strong student response and encouraged spreading the model beyond honor‑society participants.

The visit concluded with a photograph for the district website and thanks from committee members. Organizers said funding for the student books came from the NEHS grant and the Bison Foundation and that they intend to seek the same support if the program expands.