Simple activities such as reading, storytelling, singing, conversation, and games allow young and old to move beyond interaction to true sharing.
More than 20 years ago, Hesston Community Child Care (HCCC) began taking pre-school children to Schowalter Villa for intergenerational activities with its residents. The HCCC and Schowalter Villa formed a corporation in 2001 named Hesston Intergenerational Child Development Center, Inc. (HICDC). The new board worked cooperatively to design and build a new 8,000 square-foot facility adjacent to Schowalter Villa’s assisted living and health care center to house the child care’s central program.
This goal was achieved in 2005 with the construction of the new center and the new Main Street which joins the two entities together, allowing daily interaction between children and Schowalter Villa residents. Main Street, designed to portray an old-fashioned downtown square, features a gift shop, Citizens State Bank branch, conference room, and ice cream shop. Parents, visitors, and residents can observe the children’s indoor and outdoor activities in this area. Simple activities such as reading, storytelling, singing, conversation, and games allow young and old to move beyond interaction to true sharing.
For additional information contact Judy Friesen, director at 620-327-3775.
“Serving the elderly at Schowalter Villa has meant for me the daily privilege of actuality of giving a “cup of cold water” to those in need. I am inspired by the thought that we are the ‘hands of God’ in helping these residents. Each morning entering the Memory Care area where I work, I realize that I am not only the hands and feet for these needy elders, but that I lend them my mind filling in their lost words, as I cue them in functioning, orienting them to reality, and validating their tremendous feelings of loss. What a privilege to serve these the most vulnerable.”
Ruth Seibel
RN, Memory Care