Writing love letters to strangers

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OXFORD — A group of four Oxford residents came together Tuesday, Nov. 29, at Lane Library to write love letters to total strangers.

The World Needs More Love Letters is a global organization with the mission to “make love famous.” They use social media to write and mail letters to strangers all over the world. Anyone is able to nominate someone in need of a love letter bundle. More Love Letters chooses “stories that resonate.” Strangers come together over the stories and write a love letter to someone they have never even met.

The initiative was founded by Hannah Brencher during a bought of depression she found herself in after college. She wrote love letters and left them for strangers to find, finding the act cathartic.

To nominate someone, one would go onto the More Love Letter website and submit a paragraph about why that person is deserving. If accepted, the prompt is listed online for anyone to write a letter. Then an individual can sit down and write a letter to whatever story affects them.

There is always a moderator between the public and the nominated person. That moderator is the one who receives the letters to give to the person they nominated. They also have the opportunity to sift through the letters and make sure nothing “triggering” is included.

Instead of writing the letters by themselves, Lisa Anderson, Lisa Biales, Debra Bowles, and Bernadette Unger decided to come together as a group.

Anderson was the organizer of the event. She was inspired after she was diagnosed with a chronic illness and could no longer do her social work. However, she could not stop helping. “I needed something I could feel value with,” she said.

Just like with founder Brencher, Anderson feels better when she is doing this. This is the way she can continue her work, even after her devastating diagnosis.

Anderson shared, “I nominated a young woman who has the same disorder I do, and her mother. Her mother has cancer.”

These letters make a difference to the people who receive them. The website has endless “testimonials” for the public to read, but Anderson shared the one that stood out to her, “My favorite one was this girl who was becoming a freshman in college and leaving her family. Her parents were going to miss her, so she was asking for letters for them.”

The group does not have a set meeting time, but members urge the public to attend and write a few letters. Anderson can be reached for additional information on the next meeting, but the women also post the meeting time on Oxford’s social media accounts. They too believe in utilizing social media to spread love to the greater community.

The World Needs More Love Letters is a global organization with the mission to “make love famous.” They use social media to write and mail letters to strangers all over the world. Lisa Anderson, Lisa Biales, Debra Bowles, and Bernadette Unger decided to come together as a group to write letters.
http://aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/41/2016/12/web1_ox_letters1.jpgThe World Needs More Love Letters is a global organization with the mission to “make love famous.” They use social media to write and mail letters to strangers all over the world. Lisa Anderson, Lisa Biales, Debra Bowles, and Bernadette Unger decided to come together as a group to write letters.

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By Kelsey Kimbler

[email protected]

Reach Kelsey Kimbler at 937-683-4061 or on Twitter @KKimbler_RH

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