It started with one letter.
When 13-year-old Jacob Cramer from Ohio visited a senior home after his grandfather passed away, he noticed something heartbreaking: many residents never received visitors, mail, or even phone calls. So Jacob decided to write them letters.
That simple gesture became something much bigger—something beautiful.
From a Single Stamp to a Worldwide Movement
Jacob founded the nonprofit Love for Our Elders in 2013 with one mission: to bring joy to older adults through handwritten letters. Over the past decade, the initiative has grown into a worldwide force for connection, delivering more than 750,000 letters to seniors across all 50 U.S. states and over 70 countries.
These aren’t mass-produced messages. Each one is handwritten, heartfelt, and full of encouragement, sent by volunteers of all ages—kids, teens, working professionals, even other seniors. The recipients? Often people who live alone, reside in care homes, or are otherwise socially isolated.
Jacob, now in his twenties, still leads the organization with a simple belief: everyone deserves to feel loved and remembered.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, when isolation for seniors reached alarming levels, the initiative became a lifeline of human warmth—each envelope a thread that stitched hearts back together across generations and borders.
It’s proof that changing the world doesn’t always take a megaphone. Sometimes, it just takes a pen.