We’d like to thank Katherine Dyer, City People Writer at the The Greenville News for writing about our multi-generational Elder Buddies program. Here’s her article below:
Kathy Peot, 67, said that on the day she returned to St. Anthony of Padua Catholic School after a 2-month absence due to open-heart surgery, kindergartner A.J. Calderon scampered immediately up to her and exclaimed, “Where have you been? I thought you were lost!”
It was a small exclamation that carried huge implications.
“It just melted me,” Peot said.
Peot is both a school volunteer and participant in the school’s Elder Buddies program, a tutoring and companionship initiative pairing K-5 and first-grade students at St. Anthony with adults, most of them ages 50 and above, from the community.
Peot recalls with humorous inflection that at the start of the school year, Calderon, one of her two assigned “buddies,” asked her point-blank if she “had” to be his buddy “every time.” His spontaneous and genuine outburst that day in the hallway, months later, revealed to her the value of her participation in the program.
“Really and truly you just connect with the kids,” Peot explained.
The Elder Buddies program, which will wrap up its second year at St. Anthony of Padua today, is funded by an $11,900 grant from the Sisters of Charity Foundation and coordinated at the school largely through the efforts of kindergarten teacher Tara Cabe.
She explains that the program’s goal is to create community and business connections as well as multi-generational relationships. Elder Buddy volunteers are recruited and selected with help from Catholic Charities, and every participant, Mendes-Cabe emphasizes, completes a mandatory virtues training course before the school year begins.
Over the course of the year, Elder Buddies meet with the children four times as a group during school and correspond as pen-pals during time apart. They create seasonal crafts like Thanksgiving corn-husk votives and Christmas ornaments and have cruised downtown Greenville by trolley, searching for the Mice on Main and touring Marble Slab Creamery.
Today, the buddies will decorate picture frames and T-shirts to highlight their shared experiences from the year. Students will keep the T-shirts, and Elder Buddies will take home the picture frames.
“Everybody leaves with something,” said Mendes-Cabe. And not just crafts-wise.
Peot said she’s certainly gained an appreciation for the intellects and strong values she’s seen in the children, and she wishes the program allowed her to spoil her buddies even more – as if they were her own grandchildren.
Mendes-Cabe notes the social and curricular benefits of the program for students as well. She’s been excited to see them draw connections from class lessons in the experiences with their buddies.
“They’re also exposed to individuals with different interests, capabilities and talents,” she said. “I think it’s a really good social piece. We don’t always have to be perfect, we don’t always have to be good at everything. Some of us are short, some of us are tall. Some may have a disability, some may not. So it’s just a really good eye-opener and a way for us to help teach our children to respect not only our community but others around us.”
(Written by Katherine Dyer, The Greenville News)
