SOUTHWICK – Southwick Council on Aging Director Cindy Sullivan is always looking for new ways for her senior citizens to interact with the students in the school district and two programs that were started last year have become quite successful.
Prior to the start of the 2016-17 school year, Sullivan met with then Woodland School principal Dr. Amy Fouracre, and came up with the idea of having a reading program.
The program would center on seniors from the Southwick Council on Aging visiting a classroom every other Tuesday of the school year to read books to children during their lunch hour. Every senior who participated in the program would get a student assigned to them to read to.
A number of the seniors involved in the programs are seen reading to Woodland School students. (Photo courtesy of Southwick Council on Aging)
Julie Dolan, who is in her first year as a literacy coach for grades kindergarten through fifth grade, was a classroom teacher at Woodland last year. Dolan met with Sullivan and agreed to help organize the program.
Since last year, Sullivan has had 12 seniors participate in the reading program, Although Dolan noted that the program initially started out by her leaving books on the classroom tables for the seniors and the students to pick from, children are now requesting to the seniors which books they’d like to have read to them. Some seniors are regularly going to the Southwick Public Library and picking out books that they think their student may like.
Dolan is very pleased that the reading program has been a success.
“We just saw huge relationships grow between the seniors and the children,” said Dolan.
The second program is a pen pal program that was started around the same time as the reading program and has 16 seniors participating this year. A first-grade class at Woodland was selected and each student from that class would be assigned a senior. The children would then be able to write letters to the seniors back and forth and develop a bond.
Dolan noted that many of the first graders ended up sending drawings that they created to the seniors while also using their writing skills that they’ve learned in the classroom.
“This is a real-life thing, people do this,” said Dolan. “This really gives them a purpose and an importance of why they’re trying to write something to somebody.”
Patti Phillips, along with her husband, are seniors who take part in both programs. It’s an experience that Phillips cherishes as her grandchildren are older and out of the state.
“It fulfills a need for me and fulfills a need for them,” said Phillips. “After a while they kind of lighten up to you, it’s very heartwarming.”
Sullivan is glad that she decided to help create this program to allow other opportunities for seniors to work with children in the school district.
“It’s a great example of inter-generational activity where you’re bringing two generations together,” said Sullivan.
For more information on either the reading or pen pal program, contact Sullivan at the senior center at 413-569-5498.
