THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, December 24, 1995 TAG: 9512210191
SECTION: CAROLINA COAST PAGE: 05 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY CATHERINE KOZAK
CORRESPONDENT
LENGTH: Long : 102 lines
LIKE 22 JUMPING beans, the third-graders at a recent Christmas show at the Baum Senior Center in Kill Devil Hills, could sit quietly for only so long.
But none of the adults minded. After all, those were their ``grandchildren'' in the audience.
Still in its infancy, the Adopt-a-Grandparent program, sponsored by Dare County Older Adult Services, has earned high marks from seniors and kids alike.
``I think it's real nice,'' said 9-year-old Eva Hardy, one of the visitors to the center from Beverly Twyne's third grade at Kitty Hawk Elementary School. ``I like getting to see all the older people and see what they do when they're not at home.''
Although Eva has grandparents who live in North Carolina and California, she said she also likes having local grandparents who visit her at school. And she said she really liked getting to share the fun at the Baum Center with them.
Another pupil in the audience, who especially liked the senior tap dancers, agreed that grandparents in any form are a good thing. ``They're fun,'' said Tori D'Angelo, 9, ``because they're older and they know a lot of stuff.''
Tori's adopted grandmother happens to be her teacher's mother-in-law, Lois Twyne, who is the senior center's director.
The program's birth this fall was a result of Beverly and Lois' sensitivity to the needs of the age group she works with.
``It was a just a matter of daughter-in-law and mother-in-law discussing their occupations,'' Lois said. ``We just felt they could help us and we could help them.''
The grandparents and their adoptees met for the first time last month when the seniors traveled to the school, where they received the grand tour. The elders returned the favor by inviting the class to visit the senior center on its eighth anniversary and tree-trimming celebration earlier this month.
``It's worked out beautifully,'' teacher Beverly Twyne said. ``Plus, we've tapped into a resource that hasn't been tapped into yet.''
Twyne said she is confident some long-term relationships will blossom from the initial senior-youth matchings; ideally, the friendship will extend beyond the school year. Currently, each grandparent has ``adopted'' two or more grandchildren, but with more seniors volunteering, she said she expects the program will eventually be one-on-one.
The seniors are slated to visit the Kitty Hawk school regularly once a month, where future activities will include reading to the children, a puppet show and outdoor games. Plus, another trip for the kids to the senior center is in the works.
Lillian and Roy Wharton said they decided to participate as adopted grandparents partly to have fun, partly to try to make a difference in the lives of the kids they adopt. And, they miss their family - their daughters and their offspring live out-of-state.
``They're just taking the place of our own grandchildren,'' Lillian Wharton said. ``We do miss seeing our grandhcildren and I think this sort of replaces seeing them.''
Hatteras seniors had a jump start on the same idea, with a similar program in place for nearly two years, said Dabni Gray, program coordinator for Dare County Parks and Recreation Department for Hatteras Island. Since there is no full-time Older Adults services personnel on the island, the department assists with senior programming. A product of brainstorming between her and the Cape Hatteras School principal at the time, Gray said the senior luncheons held every Thursday in Frisco were broadened to encourage older adults to come into the schools.
Instead of each of the 10-15 participating seniors adopting a grandchild, in Hatteras the entire classroom adopts a grandparent, Gray said. And there's lots for the grandparents to do with the students: share lunch, assist the teacher in classroom activities, read to them, play games.
``It's really good because a lot of the grandparents are displaced from their own grandchildren. Or a lot of the grandparents have real grandchildren in the school, and they get to see their own grandchildren there,'' said Gray. ``It's a lot of fun - it really is.''
Gray said that bringing the seniors into the school has helped make them an important part of the school environment, resulting in older adults volunteering in more and different ways.
Equally important, Gray added, is that the children have had a positive impact on the seniors. For example, one man arrives regularly to the school in his wheelchair, and is immediately swarmed with adoring children. ``He has a wonderful time,'' Gray said.
Another woman in her 70s, a talented writer, saw the light after attending the school's technology day, when students taught seniors computer skills. Before that, Gray said the woman was shopping around for a new set of encyclopedias. After being shown the wonders of the modern day machinery, she instead went out and bought a computer and a CD Rom encyclopedia.
The conclusion of the participants appears to be that mixing of young and old makes everyone involved a little wiser. Seniors are revitalized by the vigor and innocence of youth. And kids see that old doesn't mean bored.
``It's good to let them know we still do childish things,'' said Lois Twyne. ``We still play.'' ILLUSTRATION: Photo by CATHERINE KOZAK
Beverly Twyne, center, a third grade teacher at Kitty Hawk
Elementary Schoolm guides her students and their adopted
grandparents through a program at the Baum Senior Center.
by CNB