Welcome back to Good Day, Stateline,
I am so excited to talk about this
and how we can be part of Cupid and crew.
2022.
Tom is here with us tonight from AARP
is going to tell us what this is all about.
Hi, Tom.
Hi, how are you doing today?
I'm so good. I'm I just I need to know about this.
What is a wish of a lifetime fellow?
Wish of a Lifetime is an organization
that is an official charitable
affiliate of AARP, and our mission is to grant
the lifelong wishes of older adults in hopes
of bringing connection and purpose into their lives,
as well as sharing their stories with younger audiences
to encourage everyone to shift their perceptions
on what it means to age in our society.
I love it so much.
I think it's
always been an important idea that we've needed to tackle.
But you know, you look around like social media and stuff.
A lot of people say
2022 is like a year of better connection,
so I think this is the perfect gear
to be talking about this right as we gear up
for Valentine's Day.
And that is, of course, why part of the program is involving
Cupid's crew. Tell us about that.
Yeah.
So every
year around Valentine's Day,
we take a pause from wish
granting, and we mobilized our network in
schools and individuals and different groups
across the country to join us in spreading love
to isolated older adults by sending simple messages
of love and care and appreciation
to isolated older adults as part of the Cupid crew.
I love how many years have you guys been doing this?
So typically pre-pandemic, we actually are going
door to door and delivering roses on Valentine's Day.
But because of the pandemic, we're now doing our second year
where we're delivering cards to older adults via the mail.
And fortunately
for a second year in a row, we have Girl Scouts of the USA
helping us
to create those cards,
and I can say very confidently that those troops
and those ladies are doing a much better job
creating heartfelt cards than I ever would.
So we feel very fortunate to have them, and I love that too.
You know, I mean, I was a Girl Scout
for like a couple of years only, but you learn important
the skills
when you are part of that community
and knowing that they're able to connect with you guys
to create these cards, that's that's
such an awesome organizational like relationship.
Absolutely.
And you know,
we're starting to get stories
now that we're in our second year,
that we have Girl Scouts who are sending cards
to Girl Scouts who happen to be 80, 90 years old.
So those intergenerational connections are so important
and it's so cool to see
those common threads and bonds between the participants.
Absolutely.
OK, so how can we get involved
and what's the timeline like on this?
So it's really easy.
We encourage everyone to visit wish of a lifetime dawgs
slash cupid and you'll get all the information
you need as to how to join our Cupid crew.
You can download a card there, send it to a friend,
a family member or even a neighbor down the road.
So you also get ideas about what to include in those cards,
and you officially become a member of the Cupid crew
and join us in our mission of getting over a quarter
of 1,000,000 of these messages out to isolated older adults.
This such an awesome, and it sounds like so easy
to be a part of it too, right?
And I'm sure you can
appreciate anybody who wants to be a part of it.
There's probably no cap to the amount
of members of the Cupid crew, huh?
Absolutely not.
We encourage everybody to take part of this,
and part of what we love about this
campaign is it shows people just how easy it is
to make a difference in isolated and lonely individuals lives.
So around Valentine's Day, it's as simple as sending a card.
But any time throughout the year,
just picking up the phone,
having a conversation with someone
who may have lost loved ones recently
or is older and struggling with feelings of isolation
is so impactful and it's it's so easy to do at the same time.
Absolutely.
Well, we are excited to share all of this
with our viewers,
and we hope that lots of rock Floridians
become part of the Cupid crew this year.
Tom, thank you so much for joining us tonight.
Absolutely.
Thank you so much for having me.
We'll be right back with a Valentine's Day Spirit
Day cocktail.