Connie Medeiros helps preschooler Shantel Palacpac pot a plant. Grace Lee, left, and Tina Samson are also participants in the gardening program at Seagull School in Kapolei.
How does your
generation garden
grow?
A Kapolei program brings kids
and seniors together
Connie Medeiros and 4-year-old Cori German may have been born generations apart into vastly different worlds, but they have one thing in common: They both enjoy gardening.
The pair was recently delighted to get dirty, planting cosmos, lady slippers and calendula. The gardening experience is part of an intergenerational gardening program based at Seagull Schools in Kapolei, where an adult day-care facility shares space with a preschool.
The program allows the seniors to interact with the youngsters and also engage in hands-on activities they enjoy, explained volunteer coordinator Pitcharana Chaicharn.
"I always had a large garden," Medeiros, 86, reminisced while working alongside German, noting her current home is surrounded by concrete. "I miss my garden. It was filled with violets, lady slippers and a variety of plants."
Eleanor Hew Len, another senior, claims to have a green thumb, and was laughing as she watched her partner, 4-year-old William Kling.
"He's going to be a farmer. He likes getting dirty," she said, noting all the dirt in his hair. Before Hew Len lost her husband, she had a garden that spanned more than a half-acre. "There were so many different plants. ... It was beautiful."
Noah Sajor, front, gets help potting a plant from Wayne Souza.
Gardening also teaches patience and perseverance, and promotes creativity in addition to providing a means of relaxation, Chaicharn explained. The seniors treat the kids like their own grandchildren, adding to the "feeling of ohana."
Plants raised often become gifts bestowed on the kupuna, teachers and volunteers on Mother's Day and other special occasions.
"Last year, we planted basil and other herbs and used them for a spaghetti dinner," Chaicharn said.
Seagull Schools is unique in that "there are no locked gates between the seniors and kids' area," said Executive Director Chuck Larson. "We wanted to make it so they could see each other and have lots of visibility and interaction."
He added: "We wanted to create the sense of a village. We didn't want to have an institutional feeling.
"It's not just a place for old people. Several of the elders have grandchildren who attend the preschool. They build bonds by engaging in activities in the classroom at least two times a week.
"Some of the kids are from military families. It really serves its purpose for these children. This may be their only grandparent experience."
The school's philosophy is based on Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget's theory that older adults need interaction with young children, Larson said. The children, exposed to wheelchairs and walkers, gain sensitivity to the needs of older adults as well, resulting in "no prejudice toward old people. ... It is something they accept."
Grace Turner, left, Shantel Palacpac, Noah Sajor and Jett Searle water their plants.
www.seagullschools.com/kapolei.html
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