On Friday, while the Marblehead High School was filled with students cramming for tests and listening to lectures, the Community Center next door was alive with the sound of bouncing volleyballs, the sliding of curling stones and the laughter of students and senior citizens alike at the first MHS Students and Seniors Club and Council on Aging Olympics.
Teams of students and seniors competed fiercely in chair volleyball, cornhole and curling throughout the day.
The event was the result of a three-month planning process that was led by MHS juniors Sadie Halpern, Maren Rowe and Sydney Berman. The students coordinated with the Council on Aging to set up the event, pick a date and build rosters of participants, and it was not a straightforward process.
“There were definitely a lot of moving parts that we had to figure out,” said Rowe. “We had to make sure the seniors and the students knew about it, but having good people to work with at the COA made it easier.”
The teens founded the Students and Seniors Club last year, but they typically only had events once a month during the high school’s hour-long free period called Magic-Block. However, in January they started planning a full-day field trip to the Council on Aging so they could spend more time with the seniors.
“There’s just so much more that you can do in three hours than one,” said Rowe.
The 15 student participants walked down to the Community Center at 11 a.m., and split up into three teams along with the seniors. They spent the next couple hours playing cornohole, curling and chair volleyball together. The seniors even gave them some instruction and advice throughout the day.
“My favorite was curling,” said Berman. “I went into it not thinking that I was going to be good, but I got some pointers from a few of my senior citizen friends, and I ended up getting on the board.”
After a couple hours of gameplay, the students and seniors sat down and had lunch together, and then resumed the games until they ended the day with an award ceremony for the winning teams. After long months of hard work, it was a great experience for the students to see their hard work come to fruition.
“We’ve been planning it for months, so for it to actually happen and go really well was really special,” said Rowe.
“It was really cool to see everyone enjoying themselves so much,” added Berman. “And it really showed us that hard work pays off.”
While organizing the Olympics was a great opportunity to spend time with the seniors, it was also an equally great opportunity for the students to learn, grow and start taking a more active role in their community. MHS teacher and club advisor Jenn Billings spoke about how impactful this experience has been, and how her students have really stepped up to make this event happen.
“This is so great, I feel like Maren, Sydney and Sadie have grown up in front of me,” said Billings. “This club was their idea, they are doing all of the communication for this and they’ve really grown in responsibility. They’ve really taken charge and made it into something meaningful. I’m so proud of them.”
Billings also hopes that more events will happen throughout the year, and thinks that there should be more interaction between MHS students and the senior community, because it’s a great learning opportunity.
“I think we should make this a twice a year activity,” said Billings. “We practically share a parking lot with the Community Center, so any opportunity to get the kids out here and interact with this vibrant community is great.”
Events like these are building connections across different generations. They are sharing stories, knowledge, and even curling strategies.
“My favorite part is the connections we make with the seniors,” said Berman. “We see a lot of familiar faces each month, and a lot of them come back every single time. It’s really cool to connect with them, and a lot of the players on our team have gotten to know a lot of the senior players, and it has been really cool for us to see.”
During junior year, one of the most stressful times in a student’s life, when SAT scores and college applications are on everybody’s mind, many students have felt that coming down to the COA offers an escape from all of the noise.
“A lot of times kids focus on tests or homework, so it’s good to just take an hour out of your day and do something else, and laugh and smile with new people,” said Rowe. “I always leave the COA a lot happier than when I came in,”
