The Old and the New

This is the most fabulous idea.

Seniors join preschoolers at day care center
Sunday, January 29, 2006
BY MARGARET McHUGH
Star-Ledger Staff

It was not a traditional wood shop class. The teachers were all over 82; the students were all 4.

Using tools accumulated over a lifetime, the residents of a Morris County retirement community were giving four preschoolers a lesson in woodworking.

The men, most with hearing aids, helped their little partners make spinning toys out of wooden disks and string during a half-hour lesson. On Henry Czarnecki's order, 4-year-old Matthew Holder yanked the arm of a noisy drill press to make holes in his disk.

"Good job!" the 85-year-old mentor said as he inspected Matthew's work.

While more and more intergenerational day care programs are opening nationwide, the 14-year relationship between the seniors of Heath Village and the children of Friendship Center is unique in New Jersey, according to one official. Heath Village is the only retirement community in the state to have a day care center on its grounds, said Patrick Brady, CEO of Heath Village and president of the Friendship Center.

Friendship Center is on the edge of Heath Village's 100-plus acre campus in Long Valley, a section of Washington Township.

The arrangement allows the seniors to share time and expertise with children from ages 2 1/2 to 6, under the supervision of the day care staff.

"We wanted to make the life of child care children better," Brady said.

About 30 of the 400 Heath Village residents volunteer with the Friendship Center. They teach the children woodworking and hand- bell music and take them on nature hikes on the grounds. Some read stories to them, either at the day care center or in the retirement community's library. Some head to the day care center for special occasions to decorate cookies or do crafts with their assigned child.

Marie Springstead, 83, teaches hand-bell ringing to kindergartners. In the fall, they learned three hymns and performed them at Heath Village's nursing home.

"It's such a disciplined thing, and they catch right on," said Springstead, a retired teacher and school psychologist in the South Orange school district.

Like Springstead, 78-year-old Jim Madigan, known to the children as "Mr. Jim," hasn't lost his flare for teaching. He reads to preschoolers each week, after practicing aloud at home.

"The teacher never quite got out of me. It's fun and it's a lot different than teaching high school," said Madigan, who considers the youngsters "my extended family."

According to Donna Butts, the executive director of Washington, D.C.-based Generations United, an advocacy group for seniors and children, intergenerational day care programs are growing nationwide.

"The past five years have seen a real increase" in day care centers that cater to children and adults, Butts said.

Butts estimated there are 500 shared-site facilities nationwide, and more than 1,000 service-based programs in which adults or children do something for or with other generation, like seniors tutoring students and youngsters bringing meals to shut-ins.

Different space and staffing requirements between the age groups have been obstacles to shared facilities.

"Public policy doesn't really encourage it," said John Rother, policy director for AARP and chairman of the board of Generations United.

Locally, Mount Olive refused to let the Paragon Village retirement community convert its adult day care center into one for children, saying it violated its zoning rule limiting a property to one principal use.

Superior Court Judge Theodore Bozonelis ruled in November that since adult and child day care facilities are "essentially the same," Paragon Village could make the conversion.

Paragon Village intends to start an intergenerational program like the one at Heath Village, administrator Kim Polachek said.

Children and seniors seem to benefit from intergenerational programs, although "there is little we know about the long-term outcomes," said Shannon Jarrott, Virginia Tech associate professor and research director for the university's Adult Day Services.

Studies have shown senior citizens who participate get a mood boost and children tend to be more comfortable around older folks, Jarrott said.

Children in such programs "don't look at it (aging) as a horrible thing," Butts said. For seniors, being around children helps them think outside themselves. "They're talking less about who died and what hurts," she said.

True intergenerational programs involve sustained contact "so that there is a relationship," as opposed to a children's group visiting a nursing home only on occasion, she explained.

Jarrott said some intergenerational programs don't last because the staff isn't trained to deal with needs of both children and adults. Some organizers decide it doesn't work or isn't worth the effort.

Medford Leas Retirement Community in Burlington County closed its on-campus day care center in September 2003 because residents had to subsidize it, spokeswoman Jane Weston said.

The Friendship Center, which operates independently of Heath Village, was operating in the black within a year of opening, Brady said. It enrolls about 55 children, although on any given day about 35 attend.

Tara Ligos chose the Friendship Center for her children, Jake, 5, and Maddie, 3, because of the seniors' involvement. Ligos' parents don't live nearby, and because her husband's mother is ill, she can't do all the things she wants to do with the children, Ligos said.

"All my childhood memories are of my grammy and my poppy," said Ligos, who lived with grandparents until she was 7. "I wanted that for my kids."

For 85-year-old Stephen Riddleberger, who only sees his own grandchildren a few times a year, being Jake's pen pal fills a void.

"I love it. The kids are so great," the retired machinist said. "Jake is very shy, but I'm slowly but surely bringing him out."

Margaret McHugh covers the Morris County Courthouse. She can be reached at mmchugh@starled ger.com or (973) 539-7119.