NOEL KING, HOST:

Good morning. I'm Noel King. During the pandemic, Rachel Syme started writing lots of letters on her old-school electric typewriter - lots. She asked if anyone would be interested in a pen pal exchange. Syme, who's a contributor to NPR, created Penpalooza, a pen pal matching program, and it's taken off. Penpalooza now has over 7,000 writers. One woman told The Guardian, when my first piece of mail arrived, the excitement I felt was beyond reason. It's MORNING EDITION.

[POST-BROADCAST CORRECTION: In the audio of this story, as in a previous Web introduction, we incorrectly refer to Rachel Syme as an NPR contributor. She is a New Yorker staff writer.] Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.