Creating Community, One Story At A Time
Generations can learn from one another.
Michael Buckman
6/12/2015
On any given spring day at Nazareth Home, in Louisville,
Ky., the place is abuzz with high school and college students volunteering
their time to the elders. On this day, however, a special group of students
visited Nazareth Home after a brief exchange of emails and phone calls.
The idea of bringing these two groups together was a
spark from a conversation many months ago, in which a community leader said, “Not
everyone has grandparents, and not every grandparent has a child.”
Creating intergenerational dialogue and relationships isn’t
new. However, the opportunities to make it happen are.
On
The Same Page
On this particular occasion, the students, ages four
to 11 years, didn’t don their school colors or sweatshirts that predicted their
graduation date. Armed with smiles and their books, these students knew in just
a few moments they were going to make friends and hear Dr. Seuss’ “The 500 Hats
of Bartholomew Cubbins.” The elders knew they were going to entertain their
visitors. What the student and
elders didn’t know is that they were about to create lasting memories out of
moments between friends.
The third-floor activity room filled with former
teachers, war heroes, and men and women of faith. The students came from Family
Scholar House, a local nonprofit that is changing lives, families, and
communities through education. Each student has experienced poverty and
domestic violence on various levels. For these students, their parents chose a
specific path to create a better life for themselves and their children through
education. While mom or dad was in class at one of the local universities, the
young scholars were learning from a world that became more accessible from that
activity room.
After introductions, the kids quickly took their
places on the floor surrounded by the elders. The story began, and each student
intently listened. Along the way, they shared laughs and silly moments of the
story, and began to ask questions—it didn’t take long for intergenerational
friendships to begin to form. After the story, the kids immediately began to read
their own stories to the elders: The students had brought their favorite books
and were practicing their newfound confidence in reading. The students
periodically stopped reading to snag a sugar cookie for themselves—and their
new friend.
Nazareth Home elder Margaret Mudd shares a story with a Family Scholar House student.
Credit: Family Scholar House
Not
Judging A Book By Its Cover
This was the first time Nazareth Home, a long term
care provider, and a local nonprofit that serves children had partnered
together. Although the organizations serve two different populations, each can
embrace the other.
The staff present witnessed several things helped the
students and the elders. They quickly realized the relationships that formed gave
the student and the older adult a sense of purpose; helped
to alleviate fears children may have of the elderly; filled a void for children
who do not have grandparents available to them; and, for the elders,
helped keep family stories and living history alive.
Staff for both organizations overheard the
kids asking the elders about their careers and where they were from. In turn,
the elders inquired about the students’ favorite classes, what they wanted to
be when they grew up, and “Who is this Harry Potter?” During the hour and a half,
the elders and students took turns being the teacher and the learner.
Lessons
Learned
Other lessons learned from thinking outside the
box (more outside-the-building-and-down-the-street) is that bringing seniors
and kids together doesn’t have to be this perfect moment. Instead, both parties
took the moment and made it perfect. Both learned that many activities can be
meaningful.
The next meeting will consist of small groups
instead of one large group. The students and elders can choose to read
together, work on puzzles, garden, or whatever else they may have in common.
The key is to be flexible and allow the kids and the elders to “drive the car.”
These events don’t have to be costly either.
Although each student received his or her own copy of the Dr. Seuss book to
share with their classmates and families, the real value is what each person
gave rather than what each received. The students also made and surprised the
elders with bookmarks that had inspirational messages and quotes such as, “A
book is a device to ignite the imagination,” by Alan Bennett, and “There is no friend as loyal as a book,” by Ernest Hemingway. These timeless quotes
fostered even more discussions between the students and elders.
Wherever there are novices and experts, old and
young, there is some level of learning going on, some kind of teaching.
Challenges turn into opportunities. For this particular group of compassionate
folks, young and old, a community was created one story at a time.