By KATHLEEN NELSON
Forget the generation gap: When senior citizens and high school students in suburban Chicago gather each month, they're filling relationship gaps for each other and finding that they're more alike than either group imagined.
For the past two years, students from Glenbard North High School in Carol Stream, Ill., have visited Colony Park, an independent living center for adults 62 years of age and over owned by Franciscan Ministries, part of Wheaton Franciscan Healthcare.
Students from Glenbard North High School visit monthly with residents of Colony Park, an assisted living facility in Carol Stream, Ill., as part of Project AIM. The program twins classroom work with community service.
The students' monthly visits are part of a school program called Project AIM (Advancing Into Mainstream). The program's director, Melanie Unterman, said Project AIM integrates classroom work with community service and was designed for the school's "most delicate population," students with emotional and behavioral disorders, some of whom lack strong family bonds.
"I was very concerned that we were graduating students who lacked the skills necessary to be productive members of society," she said.
The idea to connect the students with residents of Colony Park started with Carol Stream Mayor Frank Saverino, who realized that many residents have little or no family support in the area. The seniors and students first met in September 2013, when the students unloaded a delivery at Colony Park from the Northern Illinois Food Bank.
"It was the first time I'd taken special ed students on a field trip, and I had no idea what to expect," Unterman said. "But they were amazing. They helped unload the truck and carried groceries back to the apartments. And they came back to the truck and did it again. Some of the students who have difficulty finishing an assignment in class didn't need a prompt to do this over and over. You could see them talking with the residents."
Since then, Unterman has scheduled monthly visits during the school year. Activities have included a salute to veterans on Veterans Day, cookie and cupcake baking, designing Valentine's Day cards, jewelry making and game days featuring trivia, Name that Tune contests and Wii bowling.
"They always have goodies that we can win – paper towels, hand soap — things that we as seniors on limited funds can really use," said Bonnie McKirnan, 72, who has lived at Colony Park for nine years.
Other times, they engage in group discussions on topics such as bullying or different cultural backgrounds.
"It's eye-opening to the kids and the residents how some things change or some things stay exactly the same," said Kim Banker, resident service coordinator at Colony Park. "They learn that they have more in common than they thought."
Unterman said the seniors bring out traits in the students they had hidden or didn't even know existed.
"It improves their sense of self-worth. It makes them feel good to bring joy to the residents and to give back," Unterman said. "Many come from difficult home lives. Here, they are establishing positive relationships with adults."
Unterman and McKirnan agreed that some of the students seem more willing to listen to the seniors than they would their own parents.
"When I was younger, I liked being with older people. You learn things from them," McKirnan said. "We're not the parent. We're another generation older so we have experienced 20 or 25 years more. You can tell they're listening to us."
The biggest benefit for the residents, McKirnan said, is that the students keep them young. "The kids are fun to be around. We have a good laugh together."
Banker said she considered the program a success when students who graduated last year came back on their own to visit.
"You can tell they don't want to let that relationship go," she said.
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