Rock Hill pre-teen uses phone app to bring peace to the lost and lonely

For 12-year-old Logan Hamel, finding the lost and lonely sparks comfort.

The shy pre-teen from Rock Hill wanted to bring joy and peace to those around her.

It all started from an app on her smart phone.

“It touches people to know that children want to give and help,” said Susan Hamel, Logan’s mother.

Logan heard about Nextdoor, a social network that helps neighbors connect through an app. Neighbors can stay in touch and post information about the community, whether it’s to find a babysitter or send out a warning about crime in the area.

Logan downloaded the app when she found a stray cat and knew the owners had to be nearby.

They were.

After she found two stray dogs and reunited them with their owners half an hour after posting their pictures, an idea was hatched.

What if she could use the app to help bring happiness to others who needed comfort?

“It felt good, because I knew they loved them,” Logan said about the owners of the lost animals.

Logan remembered how lonely some of the elderly adults looked at her great-grandparent’s nursing home.

“I would always see these people talking to me and I felt sorry for them,” she said.

Many said no one visited them. It just so happened that Logan needed to complete a community service project for the Beta Club – one of her extracurricular activities. She posted an ad on Nextdoor asking her neighbors to donate blankets, soap, shampoo, sugar-free candy, socks and soap. She wanted the lonely nursing home residents to finally have a visit from a friend.

Logan and her family stuffed items from more than two dozen neighbors into Christmas gift bags and headed to White Oak Manor in York Thursday.

Logan’s 14-year-old brother Nolan Hamel played piano for the residents – six Christmas songs he learned by ear in two days.

Susan Hamel said the project has become a life-long lesson.

“It made me happy to see their faces,” Logan said. “They were shocked.”