- November 23, 2024
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When eight fifth-graders at Rymfire Elementary School saw the devastation of Hurricane Irma on the news, they felt a tug on their heartstrings.
“We saw on the news that a lot of elderly died alone, and they were in nursing homes,” Morgan Chafe said. “So, we came up with a group about that and wanted to try to make their last days happy and enjoyable.”
Chafe and her peers are helping local elderly feel loved, one heart at a time, with a Community Problem Solvers group named Helping Elderly And Respecting Them.
The HEART members are Chafe, Noah Doolin, Aidan Baumert, Jennilee Brown, Lillian Guimond, Mary Wilcox, Billy Stone and Ashley Kassan.
Once a week since October, the group has been visiting the residents at Princeton Village of Palm Coast, which offers independent living, assisted living and memory care. Crafts, games, dance sessions and reading time has let the residents bond with the kids over the last five months.
“There’s someone named Beverly there, and we call her Grandma Bev, and she calls us her grandchildren,” Doolin said.
During many after-school meets at Princeton Village, the kids cranked up the “old” classic tunes to dance with the residents, including a YMCA finale.
“Everybody took a turn to dance with (Sue), but, really, I would mostly dance with her,” Guimond said. “She loves dancing with us.”
Doolin remembered an experience with a woman named Mary, who is in the memory care home.
“She never talked, and one time that we came, she talked, and we just felt super amazed,” Doolin said.
Chafe added that the nurses started crying because they knew that Mary never usually talked to people.
“I wanted to spend more time with elderly people and just make them happy because I know they don’t get to see many kids,” Brown said.
HEART has put together a scrapbook of memories from each month of visiting the residents.
“Getting to know them was really special because every day that we went there, the relationship kept getting stronger and stronger, and we all had fun with it,” Guimond said.
CmPS coach Caryn Burris said she’s touched to see the strong connections the students have made with some of the residents.
“It just melts my heart to see them interact with all of them,” Burris said. “The smiles are priceless.”
Burris added that Princeton Village Activities Coordinator Carolyn Jensen told her that the time with the students helps the residents, as it allows for more physical human contact, like holding hands, dancing or giving pats on the arm, which they don’t often get.
“Reading was a big hit because a lot of the patients can’t see well,” Burris said. “And it’s good for the students to read out loud as well.”
HEART will travel to the CmPS statewide showcase in Orlando next week where they will present their project and scrapbook to judges.
