Back at school! We presented the second half the book, “Happiness is a choice you make: lessons from a year among the oldest old.” Some of the lessons learned by the author and from this book are that many elders know there are negative aspects to aging but focusing on the positive moments helps us enjoy life, find our purpose, accept adversity, not to sacrifice our present for the future and be content with what we have. We also were taught how to make poster formats, designs, and proper info for our HAP posters. During our HAP meeting, my group went to retrieve succulent cutting from the ERC garden. We were able to cut a diverse range of plants and keeping in mind how to cut the plants based on what Chris taught us.
On Friday, we had our first Gateway Growing HAP program! Dennis was an amazing host and really helped us unload the supplies like plants, food, soil, decorations, jars and so much more. We came early to set up and immediately many elders came to join our succulent party. In our first station, we had a sign-in sheet and Wayne helped with putting soil and rocks in the mason jar while the elders picked their arrangement of plants. In the second station, we set up food and drinks that we offered to take to their table as the third station was decorating their mason jars! We had paint, brushes, paint plates for mixing, stickers, jar labels with glow markers, twine, tags, and rocks. I was in charge of encouraging the elders to decorate their jars and helping them with it. Neena was the photographer and took pictures of the elders doing the activities while Chloe used the succulent backdrop we brought to take polaroids for them to keep. Throughout the program, we all talked to them while decorating, taking pictures and eating which was amazing as it created an intergenerational activity that they not only got to keep as a memory. Many of them were so happy that we were able to do this activity and Dennis told us he hopes we can do more programs like this!
On Friday, we had our first Gateway Growing HAP program! Dennis was an amazing host and really helped us unload the supplies like plants, food, soil, decorations, jars and so much more. We came early to set up and immediately many elders came to join our succulent party. In our first station, we had a sign-in sheet and Wayne helped with putting soil and rocks in the mason jar while the elders picked their arrangement of plants. In the second station, we set up food and drinks that we offered to take to their table as the third station was decorating their mason jars! We had paint, brushes, paint plates for mixing, stickers, jar labels with glow markers, twine, tags, and rocks. I was in charge of encouraging the elders to decorate their jars and helping them with it. Neena was the photographer and took pictures of the elders doing the activities while Chloe used the succulent backdrop we brought to take polaroids for them to keep. Throughout the program, we all talked to them while decorating, taking pictures and eating which was amazing as it created an intergenerational activity that they not only got to keep as a memory. Many of them were so happy that we were able to do this activity and Dennis told us he hopes we can do more programs like this!