Story by Kathy McPherson
“Magical” is the word that comes to mind when Durham Academy pre-kindergarten teacher Nikki Graves thinks of the Preschool’s eight-year relationship with Emerald Pond, a retirement community located across Pickett Road from Durham Academy.
“It’s the joy and excitement that comes from seeing our kids' eyes light up, the joy and excitement from seeing Emerald Pond residents light up from seeing such bubbly, outgoing personalities from our young pre-k students,” Graves said.
The magic went missing in March 2020 when COVID-19 closed the door to in-person visits between DA Preschool and Emerald Pond. The joy returned as COVID-19 restrictions lessened, and the magic reappeared on Oct. 27 when pre-k students visited the seniors to sing and play music games, and again on Oct. 31 when the retirement community invited the entire Preschool over for Halloween trick-or-treating.
The DA-Emerald Pond relationship began in fall 2014 when the Preschool faculty was “looking for a more authentic community service project,” recalled pre-k teacher Sheri-lyn Carrow. “We didn't want to do a collection of things that the kids never saw who the beneficiaries were. We wanted it to be real and authentic. I had done something at a prior school with an assisted living facility, so it just came to mind that Emerald Pond was right there and perhaps we could do it. ”
That led to Emerald Pond residents reading in Preschool classrooms, Preschoolers visiting the retirement community several times a year and making arts and crafts projects at holiday times. The relationship continued during the pandemic — albeit remotely — with Preschoolers creating birthday cards for Emerald Pond residents and pen-pal relationships blossoming between residents and DA’s youngest students.
There was joy on the faces of both the children and the seniors when Carrow and Graves brought a group of pre-k students to Emerald Pond in late October. They sang Down on Grandpa’s Farm, Five Little Pumpkins, B-I-N-G-O and I Know a Chicken (AKA the Shaky Egg Song), giving residents a bean-filled egg to shake as they sang. Carrow said it brought the largest-ever group of residents to Emerald Pond’s atrium area.
“We talked about it [with pre-k students] when we came back to the Preschool, that they could tell they made the residents feel better. That's kind of how they put it: ‘We made them feel better. And they liked our songs, and they liked singing.’ The kids could tell that they made them happy.”
“The sing-along was awesome,” said Zada Burns, Emerald Pond’s engaged life coordinator. “They enjoyed it so much that we all stayed in the atrium singing after the kids were gone.”
Emerald Pond executive director Eric Robertson said interacting with the DA Preschool students adds purpose to residents' lives. “They look forward to the gifts and little trinkets the kids bring over and look forward to sending back to them. … Some people [who live] here are from far away, and their families are so far away. When the kids come, they say ‘it reminds me of my grandchild.’ It creates memories for them, and it takes them back at the same time.”
Carrow hopes the DA-Emerald Pond relationship may also have a far-reaching aspect.
“You don't want to think about your life and what happens to you down the line,” Carrow said, “but you hope that somebody is going to be there for you when you're 90 years old and not doing so well. Maybe it all comes back full circle, because you don't want to be forgotten or alone. I think that we provide some love, some happiness, some sunshine.”
