This Spring, Telstar High School’s Interact group presented at the WMSC Bridging the Generations and hosted a Volunteer Day within the Bethel Area. Through both of these events, Interact members were able to converse, connect, and collaborate with senior citizens of the Bethel area community.        

      At the WMSC Bridging the Generations, on May 2, 2013, Interact spoke, and presented a colorful show board that showed descriptions and photos of community service events that Interact has done or plans to do this 2012-2013 school year. Interact members, Maisey Griffin, Alyssa Brands, and Sam Mallory, stood at the show board to describe and talk about Interact’s accomplishments and goals. Many seniors were interested, so there was much conversing and idea sharing.       

      One of Interact’s events was a Volunteer Day which took place on May 18th and 19th. Volunteer Day is a community service event where Interact members went into the   community to help thirteen senior citizens with yard work that they needed a hand with. Melissa Prescott of the middle school art department and some of her students, Steve Wight of Rotary and other community organizations, and Telstar’s Interact group, all played a part in planning Volunteer Day and making it happen.        

       At the Bridging the Generations event, senior citizens signed up to participate in the Volunteer Day. Local, Fran Head, also had a big part in getting the seniors involved. On the Volunteer Days, Interact members met early at Telstar to split up into groups and go do their community service. Hours were spent raking, bagging leaves, weeding garden areas, picking up sticks, cleaning cars, spreading fertilizer on lawns, and even one member worked together with a senior to assemble a wooden swinging chair. The event was a success! There was much collaborating between the senior citizens and Interact members.       

      Both events, Bridging the Generations and Volunteer Day, went very well. We definitely felt like we connected with the senior citizens and were successful in bringing the generations together. Through our experiences, we learned that there are many similarities between the contrasting generations; similarities on a social and working level.     

      In the future, our biggest goal for improvement on Volunteer Day is to involve more people from the community. It would be great to get more students involved from the high, middle, and elementary schools. Even getting local college students would be neat. Getting more of the community involved would be an eye-opening experience for people and would strengthen the community. Having more people would also make the day easier because more hands would be working to reduce time and work load on one.        

      For next year, we definitely recommend having another event like the Bridging of Generations before Volunteer Day. Again, it was a great opportunity for young people to converse, connect, and collaborate with senior citizens of the Bethel area community. In addition to that, it also helped our Interact group advertise and inform people about Volunteer Day.         

      All in all, the experience was eye opening and a success. Interact hopes to work with Mrs. Prescott and her students again next year to provide more opportunities and improve the events.