With the pandemic isolating seniors more than usual, Sunningdale School is working with Chateau St. Michael’s nursing home to bring joy to care-home residents.
With residents locked down throughout the summer and physical distancing restrictions in place, activity co-ordinator Krista Bakken thought having the students support the seniors from a distance was the best option.
“I wanted the students to know that they’re lucky they can go be with family and go to sports after school and do their activities, whereas the residents (were) stuck here all summer,” she said.
Bakken reached out to Sunningdale School in October and asked teachers if they would participate in an initiative. Grade 4 teacher Jody Kearns was the first to sign up, followed by other teachers. Each grade will take a month and put together a project — such as letter-writing, Christmas cards, string art, and videos of students reading stories — to send to the care home.
Bakken will use a tablet to show the videos to the seniors. She will also meet with the more than 50 residents and read them a student’s letter. They will then tell Bakken what they want written in a letter to be sent back.
“I think this is a good interaction with students and seniors and just that the kids know, ‘Hey, there are seniors out there who could really use our respect and support,’” she added. “I was just excited about this project because I thought this would be perfect for the residents and students to get to know each other a little bit and show caring and kindness.”
Kearns’ class was the first to submit its project of student-written letters for November. The Grade 4 teacher joined the initiative since she is from Craik and regularly took her class to visit seniors to play games and read books to them, she explained. When she came to Moose Jaw, she took her class to Mulberry Estates to socialize with the seniors. However, that stopped once the pandemic hit.
“I knew Krista personally, so I knew she was doing activities,” Kearns continued.
Some of Kearns’ students picked seniors if they had the same name as the kids’ grandparents or the same middle name. The youths were already learning how to write letters in class, so Kearns thought it was great that they had a purpose when putting their skills to use.
“We said the goal was to make someone smile. Right now, it’s a hard time for the residents,” she said. “They’re the people that paved the way for us … . It’s just connecting (with people in the community), giving back, whether they know them or not.”
Kearns has attempted to teach students about the power of their words and making other people feel cared about. She pointed out part of the process while writing is word choice.
“And we have to learn how to do friendly letters, so I like writing to real people and give them a purpose instead of just writing fluffy letters,” she chuckled, adding students later wrote letters to military personnel.
The students enjoyed this project, while it also helped that they were engaged, Kearns said. Being engaged meant they valued the work and appreciated what they were doing. Some parents also told her that their kids talked excitedly about the project at home during recent parent-teacher conferences.
“So that’s a good thing,” she added, “that they’re actually telling their moms and dads about what they’re doing.”
Added Bakken, “This couldn't be better timing with Christmas around the corner. Residents are feeling lonely right now and can’t see their families. I am hoping that this puts a smile on the residents’ faces.”
