{"id":24155,"date":"2019-05-22T21:36:00","date_gmt":"2019-05-23T03:36:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.summitdaily.com\/news\/peak-school-and-timberline-adult-day-services-build-bridges-across-the-generation-gap\/"},"modified":"2019-05-22T21:36:00","modified_gmt":"2019-05-23T03:36:00","slug":"peak-school-and-timberline-adult-day-services-build-bridges-across-the-generation-gap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/local-news\/peak-school-and-timberline-adult-day-services-build-bridges-across-the-generation-gap\/","title":{"rendered":"Peak School and Timberline Adult Day Services build bridges across the generation gap"},"content":{"rendered":"
Timberline Adult Day participant Keith Walker, left, speaks to Peak student Katie Suarez, right, for the Intergenerational Story Telling Project at Timberline Adult Day Services in Frisco.<\/strong>
Courtesy of Timberline Adult Day Services<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The old and young have a lot to learn from each other. But in a society that is increasingly being driven by technology and away from real, personal human connections, it has become harder to find opportunities for generations to sit down and talk to each other as peers \u2014 fellow human beings with unique experiences and perspectives worth knowing about and learning from.<\/p>\n

In an effort to bridge the generation gap while helping both the old and young enrich themselves with the experiences of others, a local adult day center for people with dementia and disabilities has teamed up with a private school to recruit young people to interact with their clients and engage in intergenerational storytelling \u2014 a universal, timeless human custom.<\/p>\n

Timberline Adult Day Services is Summit County\u2019s only adult day respite service that provides activity programming and support for persons with dementia or disabilities, as well as their caregivers. Timberline\u2019s clients are people who need a little help to live full lives, but all have stories worth telling and are themselves worth knowing.<\/p>\n

Timberline\u2019s executive director Gini Patterson came up with the idea of working with a local school to bring in students to engage in conversation, activities and wisdom-sharing with her clients.<\/p>\n

\u201cSummit County doesn\u2019t have any facilities like a nursing home or assisted living facility where young people can have the opportunity to interact in that way,\u201d Patterson said. \u201cThe benefits are multifaceted, where teenagers are socializing and interacting with adults, and they gain a greater understanding and respect for each other. It\u2019s a win-win where the older adults also have the ability to interact with young people in their everyday lives.\u201d<\/p>\n

Timberline\u2019s clients include people with intellectual and physical disabilities, and Patterson believed it was also important for the students and community to realize their dignity and worth as people with unique experiences worth sharing.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a reminder to all of us that no matter our age, that we do not judge someone by their cover,\u201d Patterson said. \u201cAll of us have stories to share, including those who have intellectual or physical disabilities as many do have at Timberline.\u201d<\/p>\n

The Rotary Club of Summit County, of which Patterson is a member, and Peak School both became interested in the project, known as the Intergenerational Storytelling Project. Patterson met Peak teacher Karen Mitchell, who designed an extracurricular elective and chose six students to pair with six participants at Timberline.<\/p>\n

The students went to Timberline twice a week this semester. The students first got to know the participants, who are between the ages of 24 and 96. They also took part in activities, like playing croquet, doing crafts and a mini field trip to the animal shelter.<\/p>\n

During these sessions, the students and participants shared stories with each other, talking about their lives, significant experiences and interests. An article in Psychology Today, titled \u201cStorytelling Is a Conduit for Intergenerational Learning\u201d by Dr. Marilyn Price-Mitchell, outlined the medical benefits of this kind of interaction between generations.<\/p>\n

\u201cStories touch us because they allow us to connect to other people\u2019s joy, pain and varied life experiences,\u201d Mitchell wrote. \u201cNeuroscience helps explain why storytelling stimulates rich inner learning and what we might learn from stories of people, young and old. Although stories are unscientific, often imprecise narratives of human thought, they help organize and integrate the neural networks of the brain. A well-told story contains emotions, thoughts, conflicts and resolutions.\u201d<\/p>\n

Timberline participant Kelly Faber, 27, is one of the younger participants. She said she enjoyed the experience hanging out with the school kids, especially going to the shelter with them to visit the animals there.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was fun reading to the kids and getting to know them,\u201d Faber said.<\/p>\n

Keith Walker, 64, also enjoyed the experience. Among the stories highlighted by the students during a presentation for the Rotary Club was a story he shared about getting into an accident on his grandfather\u2019s farm when he was 12. It was an experience that impacted him and the rest of his life.<\/p>\n

\u201cI liked going to different places, walking down to the bike trail, and playing croquet,\u201d Walker said.<\/p>\n

Cheryllyn Goldsberry, 73, said she thought the kids were \u201ccute\u201d and that they asked her questions like what her favorite activity was (going to church) or her favorite color (pink) and how she likes to volunteer at the fire department.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019d like to do it again next year,\u201d Goldsberry said. \u201cI liked the sharing part, we were focused and interested in each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

As for the students, the experience was just as, if not more, fulfilling. Nascha Martinez, an 11-year-old in the sixth grade at the Peak School, was the youngest student to participate. She said she got a lot out of the elective. Martinez got to interview famous local Frank Walters, a 96-year-old who fought in World War II and still skis as of this season.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe biggest part of it was having such a cool experience to get to know these people with different lives and different stories,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cFrank served in WWII, and I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve never known anyone who served in WWII. It was just like talking to another person, and it was a very special opportunity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kamilla Stone, in the ninth grade, learned how to improve her interviewing skills with the visits. But working with the Timberline participants, Stone also learned more about patience and a key part of the human experience \u2014 empathy.<\/p>\n

\u201cI realized the participants sometimes had difficulty giving answers,\u201d Stone said. \u201cIf we waited they would give answer. Although we\u2019re stressed at everything in school, where everything had to be on schedule, here we had time to just sit back and listen and take in all the little details. It was a very truly impactful experience to me.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alberto Espinoza, an international student from Mexico in the 11th grade, said the experience talking to the Timberline participants and learning about their individual challenges gave him a better appreciation of what life gives us, good or bad.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter how much or little that life gives you, it\u2019s about how you use that to your advantage,\u201d Espinoza said. \u201cIt doesn\u2019t matter if you start on the first or 50th floor. It\u2019s a matter of going up the stairs. That\u2019s what I got from it. I am truly grateful they let me be part of this experience.\u201d<\/p>\n

via:: Summit Daily<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Timberline Adult Day participant Keith Walker, left, speaks to Peak student Katie Suarez, right, for the Intergenerational Story Telling Project at Timberline Adult Day Services in Frisco.Courtesy of Timberline Adult Day Services The old and young have a lot to learn from each other. But in a society that is increasingly being driven by technology […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[97],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-24155","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-local-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-06-11 04:17:01","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KIFT - The LIFT FM","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24155","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24155"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24155\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24155"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24155"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/kift\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24155"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}