On a drizzly March afternoon in Whitefish, a class of second and third graders clustered around tables, equipped with pencils and lined paper.  

Their assignment – to write a letter – was simple, but its lesson complex.  

“It’s Mrs. CC’s birthday today,” Skola teacher Kyler Lefler said to the class. “What can we write to her to make her feel good? What are some things we can say that make her feel special?”  

Well accustomed to the twice weekly task, the students got to work on the four-sentence assignment. 

The Skola, as well as the Whitefish Christian Academy, are among several schools across the nation to participate in The Aerin Project, a curriculum that teaches students to support others through letters.  

Open when you need a friend, open when you feel misunderstood, and open when you’re scared, are just a few of the infinite number of prompts to guide students in writing positive messages to their peers.  

“I like that it’s personal,” said Skola student Luke Waiton. “You can say what you like about them and say all your joys about them.”  

The young student expressed an understanding of the intimacy of letters.  

“It’s not like telling a lot of people,” he said.  

Waiton said his favorite letter he wrote over the year was a letter to a fourth grader named Aspen.  

“When she got it, she was really excited,” he said.  

Waiton’s classmate, Harrison Hughes, said his favorite was a letter to a preschooler named Mason.  

“He’s doing a project about the Winter Olympics,” Hughes said. “I told him that I think he’d win a gold medal.”  

Lefler said that she had students start by writing letters to classmates and teachers, before extending their reach to friends far and wide, and even writing letters to businesses around town that the students enjoy.  

“We talked about the process of the Postal Service, how people touch our mail to get it to where it’s going, and then we thought about the gratitude behind that,” she said. “We encourage them to stick with their creativity and imagination.”  

Head of School Brooke Ober said that the Aerin Project has been a component of teaching how brains work. The concept exposes the students to topics that could be potentially uncomfortable, she said. And it teaches that through it all, there are people like Aerin. 

“Aerin was a person who came into this world able to truly shine her light on all these beautiful things in other people,” Ober said. “And we can extend that as a class — and they just love it. They look forward to it all week.”  

Aerin Rose Glaser, who was born and raised in Los Angeles, California, was diagnosed with a rare cancer at the age of 13. 

“She was an extraordinary human being,” said her father, Jon Glaser. “She was so kind and just had a way of making people happy.” 

After graduating high school, Aerin wrote a series of letters to her best friend, Tilly. Each came with a prompt such as open when you need a friend, and open when you need a pep talk. 

Aerin went to Tilly’s house to deliver the letters the night before Tilly left for college.  

Aerin died shortly after, in February 2024 at the age of 18. She lived a full life, despite battling through many treatments in her teenage years.  

“And so, it was actually my son’s idea,” Jon said. “He was like, why don’t you go to their high school and ask them if the seniors could write letters to their friends, just like Aerin did for Tilly.”  

The letter writing endeavor at the high school was a success.  

Jon then went over to the elementary school where Aerin attended and pitched the idea. Staff and students were again enthusiastic about partaking in letter writing.  

From there, the Aerin Project was born. Jon decided to create a letter-writing curriculum to help spread the project to other schools, providing structure for teachers and stationary boxes for students.  

No matter the age or class, the project’s objective is to inspire empathy, kindness and gratitude, and to establish a space for an intimate but dwindling form of connection. 

The Glaser family has frequented Whitefish for many years, and friends were able to help connect Jon to The Skola School and Whitefish Christian Academy to share the curriculum.  

The Aerin Project is now being taught in 25 schools across the nation, from L.A. to Whitefish, from kindergarten to university classes. Glaser estimates over 3,000 letters have been written, and he hopes to reach more schools.  

“It’s been gratifying, because it spreads kindness and honors my daughter,” he said.  

The impact of the Aerin Project may even be backed by science. Kimberly Parrow, a mental health professional, adjunct assistant professor at the University of Montana, and affiliate of the Phyllis J. Washington Center for the Advancement of Positive Education, is leading a research study titled, “The effects of high school students receiving encouragement from peers on academic performance and wellbeing.” 

The study is looking at the effect of Aerin Project letters on 16 to 18-year-old students at Sentinel High School in Missoula over the 2025-26 school year. 

Meanwhile at the Whitefish Christian Academy, Head of School Rachel Erickson has seen true evidence of spreading hope throughout the school year.  

Jessica Sliman’s fourth-grade class is participating. Once the class had written letters, they were recognized in front of the whole school, to show an example of how students can instill hope in each other, Erickson said.  

“It works not only on letter writing skills, but also as a way to communicate God’s love to people who may need encouragement,” Erickson said. “It’s been a beautiful opportunity for our students to look outside of themselves, to write something that will help someone have a better day, or to realize that they are seen, that they are thought about, and they are prayed for.”  

Read more about the Aerin Project at www.theaerinproject.com 

    Mrs. Sliman's fourth grade class at Whitefish Christian Academy with their special Aerin Project stationary boxes. (Photo provided)
  

Skola student Walker Hamman works on his letter for an Aerin Project assignment on Wednesday, March 18. (Kelsey Evans/Whitefish PIlot)

Skola students Emma Lee and Quinn Ober write their letters as a part of the Aerin Project. (Kelsey Evans/Whitefish Pilot)