Reaching Across The Generations

The Children’s Adventure Center (CAC) and Ashlar of Newtown have been working together to provide an intergenerational program to facilitate social ties between the preschoolers and the seniors at Ashlar.

“Many of our children do not have extended families that live nearby and this program will provide a wonderful opportunity for our children to have the experience to visit the seniors at Ashlar and share some valuable time,” said CAC Director Rose Luizzi.

The teachers at CAC have been teaching the youngsters about grandparents with special concerns. The Newtown Visiting Nurse Association recently loaned several pieces of equipment, including wheelchairs, footed canes, and walkers, for the teachers to use in their lessons. The students quickly learned that using a cane or a walker or maneuvering a wheelchair is not as simple as it looks.

“This has been a wonderful learning experience for our youngsters and it will make their visit to Ashlar so much more meaningful when they can understand what equipment they are seeing seniors use,” said CAC teacher Ann McCutcheon. “It will no doubt add to the students’ appreciation of the experience.”