Seniors and students make a connection over games

By Alejandra Pulido-Guzman - Lethbridge Herald on April 26, 2024.

LETHBRIDGE HERALDapulido@lethbridgeherald.com

Nord-Bridge Seniors Centre offered its members an opportunity to enjoy an intergenerational board game afternoon with Grade 5 students from Park Meadows Elementary School Thursday.
Ashley Kern, program coordinator at Nord-Bridge, said the program has been running for almost 10 years now and it has become something members look forward to. She said the program is running this year during National Intergenerational Week.
“We offer this program to showcase the importance of these relationships, how connecting younger and older generations can benefit both of them,” said Kern.
 She said they can learn from each other through play, while interacting with people in an age group that they may otherwise would not have the opportunity to interact with.
“There’s so much research that shows how important these connections are, so to keep it going here especially is really important because there’s a lot of seniors that live at home by themselves and they don’t necessarily have other interactions,” said Kern.
Kaylee Melhoff, Grade 5 teacher at Park Meadows Elementary School, said the school has been bringing their students for many years to the intergenerational activities and they look forward to it.
“The kids enjoy it, it’s fun. The seniors always are so excited for us to come and I know our kids saw this morning that it was Nord-Bridge this afternoon and they were excited all morning, so they just love coming,” said Melhoff.
She said the students were playing board games with the seniors that took part of the activity and they were teaching each other.
“I think some of the kids are teaching the seniors some of the games so it’s pretty fun,” said Melhoff.
While speaking with the Herald, a few of the students were waiting for seniors to arrive.
One of those students was Max Mack, who said he was looking forward having a senior join him and his friends at a game of Uno. He said this was his second visit to Nord-Bridge for intergenerational activities.
 “It’s cool because we get to see elderly people that we don’t really see as much that I don’t interact with and it’s just a better way to interact with people I feel,” said Mack.
Lucy Graham, a member of Nord-Bridge who was playing Sorry with three Grade 5 students, said she was very happy to be able to interact with that age group once again.
“I’m a retired teacher so I just enjoy getting back with this age group. I taught Grade 5 for a number of years,” said Graham.

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