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Greetings!, This week I'd like to share some really helpful information for those of you who are not sure if you are considered "old" or not! The girls at our Nashua Girls' Center have just begun participating in an inter-generational program with the Nashaway Women's Club and the Huntington Community center. As we do with all of our programs, we conducted a pre-test to get an idea of what the girls know. We asked them: "What do you think the term 'old person' means?" Trust me, they had plenty to say on the question! Here are some examples.
· An old person is someone older than 40 and/or someone in a nursing home
but I think they are just as alive as a 5 year old
· An old person is just a regular person whose age is different than ours
· I think an old person is a person who has lived for many years although
grown-ups usually in the 30's, 40's and 50's will say they are old but I
don't think they are
· I think an old person is someone who has lived for many, many years
· Like my grandpa, older than 10 years - girl or boy
· I think an old person is a senior citizen. I also think an elderly person is like
in their 50's, 60's, 70's, 80's and 90's
· A citizen of the USA that shares what it was like when they were a kid!
During school vacation week, 50 girls from the Manchester and Nashua Girls' Centers had a fantastic time at the Home Depot in Londonderry who had invited the girls to participate in two workshops. The girls got to build a bird houses and plant flowers and vegetables. Each girl got to build her own birdhouse and one of our girls was so excited saying, "this is the first time I ever used a tool!" Many of the girls planned to give their birdhouse as a Mother's Day gift. Each girl also planted flowers and vegetables on their own, and were so excited to bring them home. Earlier this week one of the girls came running off the bus at the Nashua Girls' Center to excitedly announce that her seeds had started to spout. One additional highlight for the girls was that they each got to go home with their own orange Home Depot work apron!
The Nashua Girls' Center was also blessed with 15 terrific volunteers from UPS who did a clean sweep of the entire outdoor area. One volunteer brought his own landscaping equipment to mow the lawn and he removed all the sand from the entire parking lot. The volunteers removed truck loads of brush from the playground area and made everything safe for the girls, even repairing a broken picnic table. At the end of the day, volunteers brought in plants from their homes and planted them with the girls. The outdoor area looks great now and the girls were very impressed to see all the people that care about Girls Inc. and came out to help! Thank You UPS!
Finally, a story about how good things come to good people. A single mom of grown children became a foster care parent and she enrolled five of her foster care girls (aged 12, 10, 8, 7 and 5) in our program in Concord. The girls had been in and out of the system for several years and had many challenges and behavior issues, one is legally blind. Mom decided to adopt all five of them! But the good story doesn't stop there. She had just succeeded in completing the final adoption when a wonderful man asked her to marry him. These five girls, who once had no one, now have a new home, a new family and two loving parents!
Have a Happy Friday!
Catherine Duffy Cullity, CEO |
