Several girls her age play Candy Crush or like watching cartoons, but 15-year-old Hita Gupta peps up hundreds of lonely Americans, including the elderly and children, marooned in nursing homes due to the Covid-19 lockdown by sending them gift packs and spirit-lifting notes.

The 10th-grade Indian-American student from Pennsylvania’s Conestoga High School has an NGO, Brightening A Day, and is using it to spread love, hope and joy among America's nursing homes' residents, especially senior citizens, to help them keep at bay their boredom arising from the Covid-19 restrictions.

Gupta brightens up their lives by sending them handwritten notes and gift packs containing puzzle and colouring books and a packet colour pencils.

“It saddens me to think of how lonely or depressed many nursing home residents feel because they cannot see their loved ones. Our seniors are already one of the most isolated groups. A research has shown that more than 40 per cent of seniors regularly feel lonely,” Gupta told PTI in an email interaction.

“During this uncertain time, which is causing panic among many seniors, it’s our responsibility to let them know that they are not alone. I initially started sending gift packs to nursing homes using self-funding. Now, I have sent them to residents of 16 local nursing homes,” she said.

Each gift pack contains one puzzle book, one colouring book, and a pack of colour pencils/crayons, Gupta said.

“It also contains an uplifting note written by my 9-year-old brother Divit Gupta,” she said.

Her NGO has reached out to more than 2,700 kids and seniors in 50 hospitals and nursing homes in seven different states in the US.