Tallgrass Creek Retirement Community's Resident "Grandfriends" Will Have a Picnic May 16 in Overland Park, KS, With Blue River Elementary School Students; Program's Shared Community Outreach/Learning Scope is Year-Round

OVERLAND PARK, KS (May 11, 2011) – Fifteen Tallgrass Creek retirement community resident “Grandfriends” will offer stories, encouragement and hugs to Blue River Elementary School students when they have a picnic on Monday, May 16, with the students. The residents will travel to the school as part of a year-round Grandfriends Program in which they and second and third graders share learning experiences and work together on various community outreach projects during the course of the school year.

The students and residents meet in small groups at least four times each school year. The students and their Grandfriends from Tallgrass Creek have participated in several community service projects this year. They have made Valentine’s for hospitalized veterans and decorated lunch bags for the homeless.

Tallgrass Creek resident Betsy Heimke’s grandchildren are grown and her great-grandchildren live in Texas, but she routinely enjoys fun and games with youngsters. And she is proud to be a Grandfriend.

“If I weren’t living here, I’m sure I wouldn’t be involved with kids,” Heimke says. “I didn’t even know such a program existed ‘til I moved here. Whoever thought this up had a brilliant idea.”

Blue River Elementary launched its Grandfriends program in 1998. Ten years later, Jill Cline, Tallgrass Creek’s community resources coordinator, brought it to campus. “The students and residents both benefit from the interaction,” she says. “The goal is to foster intergenerational relationships, especially among kids who may not have grandparents in the area.”

That encompasses lots of kids, according to Mary Foote, one of the teachers who collaborates with Cline on program activities. “Our students love it,” Foote says. “They’re learning so much about life in the past, and the Grandfriends are learning what it’s like to be a second or third grader and the expectations [today].”

A Halloween event kicks off the year’s programs. The children arrive at Tallgrass Creek in costume to sing songs, go on a scavenger hunt, and trick-or-treat through the community’s Audubon Clubhouse. Last Halloween, they also interviewed their Grandfriends to get better acquainted—and were amazed at what they learned. Foote recalls one comment in particular. Clearly impressed, a student told her, “Did you know that my Grandfriend used to ride a horse to school?”

“I cannot offer the kids the real life experience of fighting in a war, going by horse to school, or even what the community was like 30 to 50 years ago,” Foote says.

That’s where Grandfriends like Don Alexander come in. Alexander, who was in the Air Force and served in the Korean War, was one of 19 veterans from Tallgrass Creek honored last November at Blue River Elementary School's all-school assembly on Veterans Day. It was the students’ idea to invite the veterans.
Following the assembly, “We broke into groups, went in classrooms, and the veterans told a little about their military service,” Alexander says, “mainly what branch they were in, when they served, and where they were stationed.”

His wife, Elaine, is a Grandfriend, too. They participate, in part, because most of their grandchildren live in other states. The Alexanders, who raised four sons, are Grandfriends to three little girls. “The kids are so lively,” Mrs. Alexander says. “It’s been fun to have two of them for two years. We’ve gotten to know them better and watch them grow.”

About Tallgrass Creek:
Tallgrass Creek, whisch has nearly 200 residents, is a continuing care retirement community located at 13800 Metcalfe Avenue in Overland Park, KS. It is managed by Erickson Living.

Mel Tansill
Public Affairs Manager
Tallgrass Creek
13800 Metcalfe Avenue
Overland PArk, KS 66223
Cell: 410-241-7614
Email: Mel.Tansill@Erickson.com

This release was published on openPR.