Older People's Day 2009
Friends of the Elderly is joining in with this unique day by staging lots of fun events on-site at many of our services.
The whole campaign – entitled “Full of Life” – aims to foster stronger relationships between the generations and challenge prejudices around age.
A variety of events will be taking place: local schoolchildren will be going to some of our homes and day clubs to sing, to stage a play, to perform a variety performance and much more, while our older people will share their memories with the children. Friends of the Elderly’s Wyre Valley Day Club (Kidderminster) and residential home The Lawn (near Alton, Hants) have, for example, organised two exciting, intergenerational events.
Wyre Valley Day Club has invited 10 and 11 year olds from Birchen Coppice School to visit the club and to participate in joint arts and crafts. This is the first meeting of what is planned to be an ongoing project will allow our members to share their memories with the schoolchildren, while the children produce arts and crafts items as part of their curriculum activities.
The Lawn, meanwhile, has asked children from local schools to paint a picture for a competition of any older person they admire - perhaps a grandparent or aunt. These portraits will be accompanied by a few sentences explaining why they have chosen their role model. The competition closes at the end of November and the winners will be announced and awarded by the Mayor. The competition will be judged by Tony Yendell, a local artist, Mrs Dawson, resident at The Lawn and artist, and Tony Cross, curator of the Allen Gallery in Alton.