It’s special. The connection formed between young and old. You see the magic unfold between grandparents and grandkids, but what if your grandchildren live out of town or if your gramps and nana are not around anymore?
Revelstoke Community Network Coordinator, Lisa Cyr, works with intergenerational learning making sure those childish giggles and heartwarming smiles don’t go to waste.
Cyr has spent the afternoon painting murals at Moberly Manor with fourth and fifth graders from Begbie View Elementary. “The kids are super keen, it’s a little bit of entertainment at least. We used to go to Moberly and do activities with them, but obviously we can’t do that anymore, so we try to find ways,” she said.
Before the pandemic, Cyr would teach the children empathy by letting them sit in a wheelchair, wear blurry glasses and earplugs. They would also visit the adaptive services taking a bath. The students would also play card games with the seniors, read poetry and plays.
The idea behind the video series ‘Coming of Age’ came to Cyr as a phoenix rising out of the ashes. “I wanted the kids to understand that seniors were more than older adults with dementia that can’t go to the bathroom by themselves. There are a lot of seniors here with a ton of vitality, who do amazing things that are contributing greatly to community life,” she said.
In a socially distanced set up in the basement of the United Church, Cyr created the series together with filmmaker Francois Desrosiers interviewing eight seniors from the community generously sharing from their life wisdom.
The videos are made for students and the wider community, hoping to spark discussion about everything from environmentalism and over-consumption to stereotypes and ageism.
Reflecting on making the series Cyr looks to traditional aboriginal cultures and how they really value the knowledge of their elders. “I think that deep down all of us are longing for that, we are craving that. And you don’t really know unless you take that time to sit down and listen,” she said.
It saddens Cyr to see how storytelling has become a nearly lost art. “Quite often we have this idea that seniors are too slow, they can’t keep up, that they’re a bother. It would be great if we could all remember that we have so much to learn,” she said.
So what can we do as an individual to lessen the generational gap and connect more with seniors? A good first step is taking interest in your neighbours, Cyr said. “If you live close to some seniors check in on them. That is not something you do out of pity, but out of interest, because it’s actually rewarding for both. Everybody wins. You can form a true, deep friendship with people of all ages when you take interest in them,” she said.
Cyr also mentions local initiatives where you can volunteer such as Revy Helps, Revy Unstuck, and Meals on Wheels.
In the future, Cur hopes to receive more grants to allow her to continue to capture more of Revelstoke’s oral history.
Check out the video series below to learn about how Chic Sharp left the world of academia to follow his dream of living off the land in the middle of nowhere, or how Sharon Tippe got her second black belt when she was 72 years old.
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