Hey, if it’s good enough for Jimmy Fallon, popular new host of “The Tonight Show,” let’s all get on board: Be the first in your hood to start The Handwritten Thank You Note Movement! Time to forget about those generic email thank yous. Surprise! This ritual of politesse is not just for the Senior Set. Check out what Carroll Irene Gelderman, 20, a Columbia University student from New Orleans did when she was named the 2014 Queen of Carnival. Order new stationery, of course, to thank all those in her Mardi Gras Queen’s court paying homage. Apparently, we’re talking hundreds of gifts here.

“Like a lot of people in my generation, I might think, ‘Oh, just send them a text,'” notes this with-it queen. “But I actually enjoyed writing the notes because the process of opening a note, feeling the paper, seeing the imperfection of the writing, reading the message in another person’s voice, you actually feel like you have a piece of that person in your hand.”

“It is so important, in a digital world, to have the dignity to sit down and write something in your own hand,” adds Cristiano Magni, a New York fashion publicist who would know a thing or two about communicating. “It not only strengthens the bonds between people, in your personal life and in business,” Magni says about sending a handwritten note. “It also rings an emotional chord.” Too true.

A recent thank you from my stepdaughter, Stephanie