For the week of  October 24 - 30, 2001

Learning, loving 
across generations

Senior citizens visit 
special friends at Hemingway

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By PETER BOLTZ
Express Staff Writer

Senior citizens found themselves back in the fifth grade at Ernest Hemingway Elementary School in Ketchum last Wednesday.

Gregory Roos, center, is surrounded by his grandparents at Ernest Hemingway Elementary School’s Grandparents and Seniors Day. From left to right are Jacques Roos, Bettye Roos, Gregory, Lila Rich and Neville Rich. Express photo by Willy Cook

Some of them received a refresher course in common and proper nouns in teacher Sandy Scott’s classroom.

Not as pupils, but as teachers themselves, and as grandparents and senior mentors.

While Scott’s class went through a magazine, marking proper nouns with highlighters, the seniors advised their grandchildren as well as other children.

Classroom participation was just one of the events at the Grandparents and Seniors Day.

Event organizer, Kate Berman, also a member of the school’s parent association, said this was the fifth year of the event.

"We encourage seniors to come, even if they are not anyone’s grandparents," she said.

"This year we had more than 100 visitors, 20 parent association volunteers and 24 fifth graders who served as guides," she said. "We had 65 seniors come to the lunch that the parent association provided."

She said that "most seniors come to see ‘specific friends,’ like their grandchild or a neighbor child."

The seniors were treated to a reception in the lobby when they arrived. Then they were taken on a tour by fifth-grade guides of the school’s special rooms, such as the publishing house room, the tech room and the computer lab.

Juli Roos, a parent association member who will be taking up the role of organizer next year, said the kids have fund-raisers to help equip and supply the special rooms.

Keith and Lois Anderson praised their guide, Ali Maricich, as "the best."

He said he knew a lot of what was at the school, but Maricich "showed me new places."

"This is a very nice function," he said. "Done first-class."

The Andersons then went to spend time with their grandson Lucas Anderson in Scott’s class, where it wasn’t all about common and proper nouns.

Everyone was seated in a circle and the pupils also read the different essays they wrote about their grandparents.

Chelsea Lactash wrote that her 75-year-old grandmother was "still on her feet and making delicious jams."

She still remembers the "stinky, white chicken" that lived on her grandmother’s farm.

"My grandmother doesn’t spoil me a lot," she wrote, "but she’s still my favorite grandmother."

Amy Tamayo wrote, "My grandparents are loving old people. My grandparents live in Mexico, where it’s hot most of the year. When we go visit them, they always prepare delicious meals."

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