Four months ago, Denise Schweiss sent a letter to a friend in the hospital to express her gratitude to him. He helped her buy music equipment and start her music career — which she then did for 25 years. ‘’
“If he wouldn't have given me that more support, I never would have done it, and I did it for 25 years. I sang because of his influence,” Schweiss said.
Recently, Schweiss’ friend passed away.
“People forget what they do for you, and you have to remind them,” Schweiss said. “Then when they're down, they can remember, ‘Well, I have a purpose in life.’”
Schweiss became interested in letter writing as a child, when her grandmother would send her letters at 3 years old. Her mother would collect each of them and keep them in scrapbooks, and now at 68 years old, Schweiss still has the scrapbook today.
“My mom told me this years ago — before she passed — that if you really care about somebody, you ought to write them a letter one time in your adult life and tell them how you really feel about them, or tell them how they've helped you and the meaning it had,” Schweiss said.
Schweiss has maintained this value throughout her life and continues to do so with the Alamance Letter Writers Society.
The Alamance Letter Writers Society was founded in November 2022 by Anna Neill and Becca Chavis to share the love and tradition of letter writing.
“We just found a shared love and passion for writing letters, for pen pals and for paper and pens and all those kinds of paraphernalia that you can get into,” Neill said. “So we thought, wouldn't it be great if we could bring together other people who have the same sort of passion? And that's how the group was born.”
Once a month, the group meets at the Mebane Public Library and writes letters to military members serving overseas, retirement communities and a variety of friends and family. At the April 8 meeting, the group of five wrote happy birthday letters to a member’s father for his 95th birthday and a get well soon cards to a friend in San Jose, California. The club, usually about six to 10 members a month, uses free cards that have been donated to the library.
“Letter writing is a real, physical, personal way to connect with people,” Neill said. “I think it's a lost habit, it's a lost way of communicating. And so for me, I get excited when I get something in there, like a card or a letter. So I think I want to do the same thing for other people.”
Sending letters has been decreasing steadily over time, with 116.2 billion pieces of mail sent in 2023 compared to 154.3 billion in 2015, according to the United States Postal Service.
Philip Bogenberger, USPS’ North Carolina media representative, said though letter writing is not as popular as it used to be, there is still value in the tradition.
“Even though we've seen that letter mail decline over the years and packages rise, I think there's still nothing more special than getting that handwritten note or that special greeting card in the mail from someone that you really care about,” Bogenberger said.
With the changes in mailing from primarily letters to packages, Bogenberger said USPS, which is celebrating its 250th birthday, is trying to adapt to the times through several new projects, such as the informed delivery system, where users can see what mail is expected to be delivered that day.
“We're becoming very high-tech. We are modernizing and revolutionizing the Postal Service each and every day,” Bogenberger said. “We touch every home and business in America.”
Bogenberger said USPS is committed to connecting people across the country.
“It's an important thing for us to be able to make sure that we are connecting people, from mailing packages and gifts to greeting cards and holiday cards to letters between friends,” Bogenberger said.
At the meeting, the Letter Writers Society said they have noticed the generational attitudes surrounding writing letters.
Baby Boomers would care the most if they stopped receiving mail at 57%, compared to 45% of Generation X, 41% of Millennials and 37% of Generation Z, according to a study conducted by USPS.
Boomers also feel the most positive about receiving mail, where they are more likely to open, read and follow up with the letters they receive, whether it is branding or political ads.
The April 8 meeting was Jean Catlin’s second time attending the club, and she said she was driven to join because of the personal connection she feels with letter writing.
When Catlin was 13, her best friend moved across the country to Seattle, and the pair has been sending letters for over 50 years.
Catlin’s friend recently sent her a cassette tape that she originally sent her at 13. Even though she can’t find a way to play it, it symbolized how much they value their correspondence.
“I just think that it's really special to be able to keep in touch with people and just right in people's day, instead of a bill or flyer or political ad, it's really nice to be able to know what's going on in people's lives,” Catlin said. “It's different than a phone call. It's just something that you could hold.”
The Alamance Letter Writers Society meets at 6 p.m. every second Tuesday of the month at the Mebane Public Library.