This page was exported from Shelburne Free Press [ https://shelburnefreepress.ca ] Export date:Wed Jul 3 13:23:08 2024 / +0000 GMT ___________________________________________________ Title: Memoir program helps bridge the generation gap --------------------------------------------------- It's a win-win all around as seniors team up with local students to chart their personal histories. According to Ken Topping, Chair of the Strategic Planning Committee for the Dufferin Arts Council (DAC), the DAC “will be working from the last week of March until the end of April with a lucky group of twelve seniors who will meet weekly with Grade 7 or 8 students to write their personal history.” To ensure a literary component for the arts in local schools, the Arts Council is acting as a facilitator for the Bridging the Gap Intermediate Intergenerational Memoir Program for the third year. The intergenerational program was created by Nora Zylstra-Savage of Storylines, “a Social Purpose Business organization that promotes personal self-worth and community appreciation of individual life stories and experiences.” Initially funded by a New Horizons Federal seniors' grant, the project has been initiated at Glenbrook Elementary School in Shelburne, as well as Princess Margaret Public School and St. Peter's Catholic School in Orangeville. This year, DAC received funding for the program from the Association of Retired Teachers of Ontario to bring the unique learning experience to two groups of students in Dufferin County. Involving approximately 100 students in the first two years, the Intergenerational Memoir Program is intended to foster cooperation, understanding and friendship between the generations with an aim at impacting young attitudes towards the elderly, while facilitating a deeper understanding of the past. For the seniors, the program promotes “feelings of life-satisfaction and self-worth.” “The seniors tell their story and the students create the written work in a scrapbook format which is gifted to the senior as a fond memory of this experience,” says Mr. Topping. The work is being facilitated by Donna Henderson, Steve Baker and Ann McMillan, all members of the Dufferin Arts Council. Sessions will be offered in one school in Orangeville and one in Shelburne. “[The program] was extremely successful for our senior volunteers and their partner students last year and we are thrilled to offer the program again,” said Mr. Topping. “It is a significant experience for a student to work with the seniors and write their history.” With the seniors as the first and primary source, the students learn to interview, write and edit. “It is a meeting of two different eras,” he says. Seniors who have been involved in the program appear to have “thoroughly enjoyed it,” as 87-year-old Betty McCabe of Shelburne says. She worked with three students, one with whom she kept in close contact for over a year with phone calls and letters. “How often do young people want to sit and listen to an old person's story?” she remarked. Retired Nurse Ruth Cruikshank, also took part in the intergenerational program. She says she “really enjoyed her time with her trio” of students and that it was “a well-organized project.” “[The students] did a great job on my book - it is a 'keeper',” she says, noting it was on display for her 50th wedding anniversary celebration. “I was so glad because one of my trio came to join us….a lovely surprise.” Harvey Kolodny also “had the pleasure of being one of the seniors in the Inter-Generational program that DAC conducted last year.” “It was both delightful to have the students interview me and also informative,” he says. “They made me think of things about my past I would otherwise never have thought through. I now have a small documented history of myself to pass on to my children.”   If you are interested in joining the group of seniors who have shared this Intergenerational experience with local students contact: stevebdac@gmail.com or call 519-923-6579. By Marni Walsh --------------------------------------------------- Images: --------------------------------------------------- --------------------------------------------------- Post date: 2016-04-09 01:18:42 Post date GMT: 2016-04-09 05:18:42 Post modified date: 2016-04-09 01:18:42 Post modified date GMT: 2016-04-09 05:18:42 ____________________________________________________________________________________________ Export of Post and Page as text file has been powered by [ Universal Post Manager ] plugin from www.gconverters.com