A Tête-à-tête with preteens and seniors

St. Vital

I cannot do justice to writing about the inspirational moments at Dakota House in St. Vital on June 9 but I can try — because we need to share the positive things going on right under our noses.

Was it only a dream? No, recently, we seniors did host 20 students from Victor Mager School. We were happy to treat them with cookies and fruit drinks, and our Karen provided gentle music in the background after randomly selecting 30 seniors to participate.

The students surprisingly gifted us with colorful baggies of candy, writing tablets and pens, as well as beautiful framed hand-painted pictures, some with captions like “Be kind to others” or “You shine!” or “You matter” and “My kind of people are kind people.” These are now our most cherished mementos of the event.

And therein lies the reasoning behind the visit. Their teacher, Ms. Rachel Robinson, has been emphasizing the policy of spreading kindness to others in their daily lives at school and beyond. She contacted our events supervisor, Karen Erlandson and, with manager Jeff’s approval, they organized the details for the visit.

Here’s how some seniors responded:

“The student at our table played soccer and football, and was a school patrol. They all deserve a very huge thank-you for the generous gifts they brought us.” — Olive

“My student, Mika, was born in China and spoke English very well. Her brother also goes to her school. With mom and dad both working, her dad enjoys cooking Chinese dishes. The students walked to Dakota House in half-an-hour — they thought they would never get there!” — Yvonne

“I sat with Grade 7 girls from Bangladesh and Korea. Grandparents came from Korea to visit last year. I asked them to guess resident Tillie’s age. Were they surprised to find out she’s almost 98 — (like Anne)! ” — Lorraine

“Our two beautiful girls have travelled to many Canadian provinces. I shared pictures showing my country school, fellow students and teachers. We found we like the same colors, same raw vegetables. One of them unbraided and rebraided her long hair. We loved our time together and shared hugs at farewell. — Wilma

“Anne and I visited with a sweet and thoughtful Grade 6 boy named Kayden. He revealed his dad makes good crepes. He was generously patient with us, since we two are hard of hearing, We all exchanged hugs when it was over.” — Ruby

”Kayden handled his role most confidently. I gave him some of my Free Press Community Review East articles about ‘the good old days’ when he asked what my younger years were like. — Anne

Conclusions:

“Kids were so happy to interact with new people and spread kindness. It blew me away to see how excited they were, so pleased with themselves — and so was I !” — Rachel

“Every time the residents spend time with students from surrounding schools you can count on it being a good experience for all involved. It’s wonderful to see the joy that a simple conversation can bring.” — Karen