The Campus Mail Center is calling all seniors to write a letter to a freshman as part of their “Leave a Letter” campaign. Seniors will leave these letters in their mailboxes upon moving off campus, leaving them for freshmen to find when they arrive for orientation.

“At the Campus Mail Center we are very fortunate to be a part of move in day,” says Deborah Hesketh, Supervisor of the Campus Mail Center. “Ninety percent of the freshmen visit us with family in tow to purchase their mailbox key and open their mailbox for the first of what will be numerous visits.  While we do our best to make them feel welcomed and let them know that they can always stop by and see us with any questions at any time, it somehow didn’t seem to be enough.”

There is just so much happening on move-in day, continued Hesketh, that their visit to their mailbox seemed to be “one more task to check off their list.”

Last August, the Mail Center received a package addressed to “The Freshman in Mailbox #.” It was sent from the graduate who had occupied that mailbox for the last four years.

That was when the Mail Center’s “Leave a Letter” campaign began. The Mail Center staff thought that if freshmen were to open their mailboxes for the very first time and find a letter from a departing senior, then those words would give them that welcome that they were hoping to convey: to know that “this is home and we are their new family.”

Hesketh explained that “the letters that have been left for freshmen have been nothing short of amazing” since the Mail Center began the “Leave a Letter” campaign.

She continued, “The letters are filled with encouragement to get involved, to join a group, to step outside of their comfort zone, and allow themselves to grow and meet people of all walks of life. There has been advice from the best food at Davison that you just can’t miss to a favorite English professor’s class you have to take.  Experiences such as participating in Road for Hope or SBA with Campus Ministry or volunteering at Girls Inc. through the Meelia Center for Community Engagement.”

“The heart felt words in these letters and the love these seniors share about their four years on the Hilltop is priceless,” says Hesketh.