Oregon Humanities is continuing their Dear Stranger program, “a pen-pal project with a twist,” inviting Oregonians to exchange letters this summer. The organization recognizes that the challenges of recent years have left many Oregonians feeling disconnected and alone. The letter exchange project seeks to address what the US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy calls an “epidemic of loneliness and isolation” that the nation is facing.
Oregon Humanities is a statewide organization that brings people together to talk, listen and learn from one another. “Dear Stranger asks us to intentionally reflect and share about our experiences,” says Lucy Solares-Steger, the program coordinator at Oregon Humanities who runs the Dear Stranger project. “While at first this can be daunting or challenging, many letter writers find that they’re able to work through these experiences by writing them out and through this, make a really impactful connection with another person.”
The aim of Dear Stranger is to create shared understanding among Oregonians with different backgrounds, experiences and beliefs. The premise is simple: write a letter, get a letter and make a new connection.
Oregon Humanities has operated Dear Stranger since 2014, with each round of the project asking writers to address a different question or theme. More than 1,000 Oregonians have exchanged letters through the project to date.
The current prompt for writers is to write about “human experiences, personal or general, that bring both joy and pain: for example, parenthood, adolescence or physical labor. What times in your life have been both bitter and sweet? When is the joy worth the pain?”
Full instructions for participation are available on the Oregon Humanities website, oregonhumanities.org. Letters are swapped anonymously and each person receives a letter from the person who received the one they wrote. What happens next is up to the writers. If they’d like to write back, they can do so through Oregon Humanities.
Letters mailed by Friday, July 14 will be exchanged by Oregon Humanities. If you’d like to participate, mail your letter to Oregon Humanities, Attn: Dear Stranger, 610 SW Alder St., Suite 1111, Portland, OR, 97205. If you prefer to submit your letter digitally, send them via email to programs@oregonhumanities.org by the deadline.
