A new program to bring about community connection has been initiated with students from Temora Public School and Temora West Public School visiting the residents at Greenstone lodge once a month. The initiative was the brainchild of Anne McCauley who is the child, youth and family support officer from the Temora Community Centre. Volunteering at Greenstone and working with both the schools she thought it would be a great way to encourage community engagement not only for the residents but for the kids as well. “There are already some really good early childhood generational activities happening at Greenstone and we thought why not get the older kids to enjoy that as well,” she said. “This is only the second visit and there was lots of talk after the first one and great excitement about doing cupcakes for today.” Students are paired with a resident to give both students and resident someone to build a connection and on the first visit they all met and wrote letters and made little postcards as keepsakes. There are 12 students with six from Year 3 students from Temora West Public School and six from Temora Public School that are drawn from Year 4. The activity that residents and students decided to do last week was cake decorating and Ms McCauley laughingly said she felt a little pressure in preparing the cupcakes for decoration with a facility with many CWA bakers in residence. Principal of Temora Public School, Erin Pike, said that the students love being involved in the community outreach program. “They love being part of the community and they were walking past Greenstone the other day and they were talking about their friends and their buddies in here and things that they loved and similarities and what they wanted to share,” Ms Pike said. “It is also nice for our kids to get to know the kids from Temora West as well and build those connections across schools.” Temora West Public School principal, Pete Roddy, said that after the first visit the students were asking when they could come back. “They've really taken to it, they're very engaged in it, which is great,” Mr Roddy said. “I think they just like having that relationship with older people. “They've got grandparents and things, of course, but it's something a little bit different for them and I think the oldies get a real kick out of it as well, so I think it goes both ways.”
