READFIELD — Senior citizens and students are sharing family recipes, gardening tips and life stories in an inter-generational exchange at Maranacook Community Middle School.
Last month, the school began hosting the new Maranacook Senior Center and Cafe every Monday and Wednesday morning. The program offers elderly people the chance to commune both with their peers and with people young enough to be their grandchildren.
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Mount Vernon mother Rebecca Dorr set up the center with the support of Regional School Unit 38 administrators and Spectrum Generations. It is intended to give the community more access to the schools they support and to reduce the isolation of seniors in rural areas like Manchester, Mount Vernon, Readfield and Wayne.
Dorr, a clinical counselor by training, saw some of the potential problems when she first moved to Mount Vernon several years ago.
“I had a young child, and I noticed that I was isolated and I noticed that the older people in town were isolated,” she said.
Dorr helped start senior citizens groups at Mount Vernon Elementary and Readfield Elementary, but they mainly attracted people who had grandchildren in the schools.
Anyone, however, should feel welcome to visit the new senior center at Maranacook, Dorr said.
The school provides free coffee and pastries in the cafeteria from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. Teachers have signed up to get the senior citizens involved in their classes’ projects.
Karen Laverty’s independent research students had to choose a service learning project for the term, and initially a few of them signed up to visit with senior center attendees. Then the interest spread, and everyone signed on.
Now, her class is involved with the senior center every other Monday. Last week, the senior citizens and students baked cinnamon rolls together.
Laverty hopes her students will build relationships with the senior citizens, as one class of hers did several years ago when they visited Grant Hills Estate residents once a week. A few years later, some of the students spoke at a school board meeting about what a valuable experience it had been for them.
“Those students got to know those adults very well, and there really ended up being a bond at a the end of it,” Laverty said. “I’m hoping that we can build on this experience the same way that I saw my former students establish relationships.”
Her student Andrew Coulombe, a seventh grader from Wayne, said he has learned that many of the seniors enjoy gardening or trail-walking. He hopes to learn more about the past by talking with them.
“It lets you know a lot of things about history, and it’s also good to know a lot of things about your community,” he said. “They could tell you a lot about the town. A lot of the them were in World War II, and they can tell you pretty good stories about that.”
After the cinnamon rolls went into the oven, the seniors returned to the cafeteria to help plant seeds for gardens where students will grow vegetables for local food banks. German teacher Brett Trefethen said he hopes some of the senior citizens will volunteer to help tend the gardens this summer.
While several senior citizens helped the students, some others, in search of a calmer activity, sat at their own table folding origami.
Readfield resident Mary Wilson, 64, said she enjoys both the activities with the students and conversation with her peers. She said she and her husband, John, love the senior center.
“It’s so nice to wake up and know we have a place to go,” Wilson said. “When we get in the car on Mondays we say, isn’t it nice to have a place to go?”
Mount Vernon resident Dan Sorensen, 85, said he’s talked with the students about their families, pets and hobbies.
“Their energy energizes me,” Sorensen said. “And also, having no grandchildren of my own nearby, I don’t know what’s going on with kids this age right now. Newspapers and television don’t tell me that, but being with them I get an idea of what they’re thinking about and what the world means to them.”
Dorr has invited guests to speak about topics important to seniors, including housing and advance care directives. Seniors have also expressed interest in a book club, a scrapbooking class and nutrition advice.
Dorr said she will look for grant money to sustain the senior center, and she’s also concerned about transportation.
That’s a concern Sorensen said he shares. There are activities and opportunities for seniors in central Maine, but some people can’t access them, he said.
“The people who came to this, and have been coming to these meetings, most of them can get themselves there,” Sorensen said. “And I’m thinking about, what about the people who can’t get themselves there? They tend not to ask to be picked up.”
Susan McMillan — 621-5645
smcmillan@mainetoday.com
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