Combining her love for service with a heart for the written letter, Tayla Jankowski found a socially distanced way to serve others during pandemic

BLOOMFIELD HILLS — Over the past year, the pandemic has undoubtedly changed the availability of volunteer and community service opportunities, leaving those wishing to volunteer feeling helpless and those in need stranded. 

However, 17-year-old Tayla Jankowski hasn’t let these limits hold her down, using her creativity to continue to reach communities in need. 

Jankowski, a senior at Marian High School, is used to being busy. She’s a “Jane of all trades” — captain of the varsity bowling team at Marian; president of Marian Melodies, the school’s competitive choir; a member of “Project Care,” the school’s service group; and involved in forensic science and the school’s theater group. 

When the pandemic hit, Jankowski found herself with more time on her hands and fewer than normal opportunities to volunteer. So she took it upon herself to find alternative ways to serve her community, and the “Senior Smiles Project” was born.

Each month, Jankowski writes dozens of anonymous letters to seniors in nursing homes and assisted living communities in an effort to alleviate the loneliness brought on by the isolation of the pandemic. 

“I realized there’s a lot of people in the senior age range who were more lonely than ever before,” Jankowski, who attends St. Mary Parish in Royal Oak, told Detroit Catholic. “They don’t have access to see their family or friends as much or interact with anyone in different residencies.”

Jankowski was moved to act when she saw how her own grandmother, a widow living alone, was negatively impacted by the isolation. Jankowski has always loved writing cards, and decided to combine her love for the handwritten letter and the need she saw.

“To take those two things in hand and try to make the smallest bit of effort to bring joy –– even if it just brings one smile to their face –– is something I really wanted to do and have been passionate about for the last few months,” Jankowski said.

Jankowski reached out to American House Senior Living, which has several locations across Michigan, about her idea. While each card is anonymous, Jankowski includes her address, welcoming seniors to write her back. She also designed personalized stationery for the project: a sun with a smile. 

She has since kept in close contact with at least five people who continue to correspond with her.

“We talk about a little bit of everything that’s going on in our lives,” Jankowski said. “I hear their stories and about their families and what they did when they were younger. Giving them a platform to share these memories and stories is something I am really grateful I am able to do, because not a lot of people give them that time. And being able to express those (memories) is really important to them.”

Although she has yet to meet any of her new friends in person, Jankowski hopes to one day meet up with at least one of her pen pals when it is again safe for in-person interactions. 

Jankowski currently operates the Senior Smiles Project entirely by herself, but she has been in discussions with the school’s campus minister to see how she can get other students involved, and hopes to continue to write letters when she leaves for college next fall. 

Her hard work has not gone unnoticed: her school counselor and campus minister nominated her to be one of the winners of the Daughters of the American Revolution Piety Chapter’s Good Citizens Award and Scholarship Contest, which recognizes and rewards individuals who possess qualities of dependability, service, leadership and patriotism in their homes, schools and communities. 

Seeing this isolation has made Jankowski more grateful for her own blessings amidst the pandemic: as a Catholic school student, she is still able to attend in-person classes. 

“This pandemic has hit everybody,” Jankowski said. “Doing this project reminds me to pray for senior citizens and pray that things get better for everyone.”