June Cademartori already knew she loved working with children from her years as a speech therapist in the Mountain View School District in Los Altos, Calif. Now, years into her retirement, Cademartori is working with children once again, this time as part of the Resident Pen Pal Program at The Terraces at Los Altos.
The program pairs seniors at the Los Altos, Calif., continuing care retirement community with third-grade students at neighboring Santa Rita Elementary School. As pen pals, they write letters back and forth to one another regularly and even meet up in person a few times over the course of the school year.
Cademartori, 86, jumped at the chance to take part in the program.
“I’ve always liked children and I loved the idea of being able to communicate with kids. It was a natural,” she says. “And, of course, they were right next door.”
Cathy Jensen, the community’s director of resident activities and lifestyle, created the program in 2009 in conjunction with Santa Rita third-grade teacher Maureen Lane. Nineteen pen pals paired up and corresponded that first year, while this year’s group is a bit larger at 21.
Resident pen pals visit the school for a meet-and-greet at the beginning of the school year, and the kids, in turn, pay a visit to their pen pals later in the year.
“I really believe in intergenerational involvement, and Santa Rita is right over our back fence," says Jensen. “The kids love to get the letters and the residents love to get the letters back, so Maureen and I do a lot of behind-the-scenes coordinating because of tight school schedules.”
The students will finish the school year by doing a readers’ theater presentation of ‘Charlotte’s Web’ for the residents, Jensen says.
“I don’t know who benefits more, the seniors or the kids,” says Cademartori. “Some of the kids don’t have grandparents and this gives them a chance to be with older people who still have a glass-half-full outlook, but a lot of the older people don’t see children that much because their grandchildren aren’t around. They seem to be very interested in talking to us.”
The seniors also get to share a bit of themselves, says resident and pen pal Charles Clark.
“It’s kind of been a mental exercise to think back in time to some of my writing that I’ve made reference to from when I was in the third grade,” he says. “It helps the kids learn the benefits of being able to think and put a sentence together to make sense, but it also gives them a sense of time and how things have changed.”
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Founded in 1949, ABHOW is widely known for its pioneering leadership in senior housing and health care. The company serves more than 5,000 residents in 37 retirement communities in California, Arizona, Nevada and Washington.
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