Morgan Kimener recognized for pen pal effort during COVID
When Morgan Kimener wrote a letter to her grandparents in March 2020, she didn’t expect that her tales of beach walks and backyard birds might grow into missives of comfort for many in a time of isolation.
“I started writing to them because we didn’t see them as often, and I was excited to get mail,” 14-year-old Kimener, an eighth grader at St. Gregory the Great School, Virginia Beach, said.
She wrote of simple things, she said. Bike rides with her three older siblings. Art projects and books. Her grandparents wrote back, letters that could be read aloud at the dinner table, passed from hand to hand.
As word of her letters spread, Kimener heard of more people wishing for a pen pal — the elderly and the immunocompromised among them — so she began writing to them, too, extending messages of friendship and care.
Last month, Kimener was presented with the Youth Virtues, Valor and Vision Award by the National Catholic Education Association in recognition of her commitment to service and social outreach. She was one of 17 recipients across the country.
“Morgan truly lives her faith, even when no one is looking,” said Bettina Robertson, English teacher at St. Gregory the Great. “She is truly a disciple of Christ.”
Paper chain
Kimener, who lives in Chesapeake, said she began writing her grandparents, Michael and Lorraine Kimener of Virginia Beach, because she missed their usual visits.
“We used to see them regularly,” her mother, Kristie Kimener, said, “at birthday parties and recitals. But then, with COVID, that all stopped.”
Observing quarantine also meant that Kimener did not see her grandparents’ next-door neighbor, Linda Franzitta, with whom she has had a longtime friendship.
“When we were little, we used to hop the fence to go over to visit her,” Kimener said, “to the point where they put in a gate. She’s sort of like my grandmother.”
When her grandparents wrote to her that “Mrs. Franzitta had said ‘hello,’” Kimener said, she began writing letters to her, too.
“Morgan has always been the sweetest, most introspective of girls,” Franzitta said. “I was honored to be one of those people she wrote to, and so I wrote back.”
“And it all sort of started from there,” Kimener said.
Telling the story
Soon, through friends and family, Kimener heard of others who wished for letters, until she had 15 regular correspondents, including classmates living a city away and seniors weathering quarantine alone.
“She also made friends with the mailman,” her mother said, with a laugh. “She’d run out to meet him since she was receiving about five or six letters a day.”
Kimener tried to make each letter unique, she said, often decorating paper to make her own stationary. For her youngest correspondent, her three-year-old cousin, she put together special activity packages.
“He was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes from a young age,” she said, “so he couldn’t hang out with other children. I printed out coloring pages for him, or got together things for him to make a small craft.”
She said that she hoped her letters were something for her correspondents to look forward to, just as she enjoyed receiving their answers in return.
“I have a box of all the letters, and I’ve numbered them,” she said. “It’s like the story of everything that happened.”
Messages of hope
In March 2020, Kimener also began painting messages of encouragement on shells and hiding them at local parks.
She set a goal for herself, she said, to hide 100 by the end of the year.
To keep on task, she wrote about her project to Franzitta, who was working on a project of her own, sewing masks.
“Her goal was to make 3,300,” Kimener said. “So she would keep track of her masks, and I would keep track of my shells.”
On New Year’s Eve 2020, she went to Chesapeake City Park to hide the last few, meeting her deadline.
“It said, ‘stay strong,’ just like the first one,” she said.
An unexpected announcement
Joseph Branco, principal of St. Gregory the Great, said that when he read about the NCEA award, he felt certain that there was a student at the school deserving of the honor.
After teachers reviewed a student survey on volunteering, Kimener was chosen for the nomination.
Kristie Kimener said that while she and her husband knew that their daughter’s name had been put forward, “Morgan did not.”
“We tried to keep it a surprise,” she said.
When an announcement was made at the school Mass, detailing the efforts of the student who had won the award, Kimener said that she didn’t immediately recognize that she was, indeed, that student.
“I was confused at first. First they mentioned the letters, but when they started mentioning the shells, I thought, ‘That sounds just like what I did.’ And then it all came together, and I realized it was me,” she said, laughing.
“I think that’s indicative of her personality,” Franzitta said. “She doesn’t realize it’s exceptional, all that she does.”
“For all the challenges that these students have faced, their resilience has been heartwarming,” Branco said. “Even in the hard times, there’s something special, if you look.”