A nursing home director brought together teenagers and seniors to dress up a wall in the activities room. While creating the 9- by 14-foot mural, the generations bonded.
By MARSHA STRICKHOUSER
Published August 7, 2004
[Times photos: Kathleen Flynn]
The 9- by 14-foot mural in Palm Garden of Largo senior center's activities room bears the Hospice Cheer Team's autograph. The Cheer Team is composed of teenage girls, most of whom are putting in hours for Bright Future Scholarships or school district programs.
Adeline Scribner eats lunch in the activities room at Palm Garden of Largo senior center in front of a mural painted by the Hospice Cheer Team. "It's quite a painting," Adeline said. "It's different." A previous painting instructor had outlined the mural's seascape on the wall, but it sat for months until the Cheer Team, hospice's youth volunteer organization, arrived. The team worked with residents on the inter-generational project for five months.
LARGO - Two years ago, Annie Johnson, activities director at Palm Garden of Largo nursing home, thought it would be great to make a mural in the center's activities room.
She envisioned a scene that the seniors - with a median age of 85 years old - didn't get to see anymore.
A painting instructor at the nursing home sketched a drawing of a seascape, used a projector and outlined it on the wall. Johnson had hopes that residents and staff could paint it. But the outline sat for months, untouched.
Then came the Cheer Team. As the youth volunteer organization of the Hospice of the Florida Suncoast, the Cheer Team was made of female high school students from around the county. Most of the students are putting in hours required for Bright Future Scholarships or school district programs.
For five months, the students spent Saturdays donating their talents. They mixed colors, painted palm trees, aquatic creatures and birds and made friends with the residents who stopped by to chat and admire their work.
Along the way, bonds were made. The blank wall was transformed into a brightly adorned 9- by 14-foot work of art, an inter-generational project that brought teenagers and seniors together.
The patients from the nursing home's long-term care unit got to work painting fish in their ceramics class. The oldest resident who worked on the mural was 99 years old.
Millie O'Malley, 90, frequently visited the activities room to watch the girls paint and chatted with them frequently.
"I love to talk," she said quietly. "They told me about their lives. I told them I've been out of high school for 3,000 years."
O'Malley, who graduated high school in 1933, has many stories to tell of her travels, her English professor husband who died close to 25 years ago and her homes, friends and relatives along the way.
Wind chimes, pictures of cats, photos and the New Yorker magazine fill her room with memories. The volunteers bring her flowers and presents for her birthday and leave her with new memories.
Kelsey Salava, 16, a junior at Clearwater High School, started volunteering for hospice because the organization had helped several family members, including two uncles.
Salava, working for a Bright Futures Scholarship, has volunteered for almost a year.
"It's neat to hear all their stories. They all have great stories," she said. "They look for us and say, "Where are my girls?' "
Painting the mural was "just a blast," said Salava. "When we were done we said, "What do we do now? Do you have another wall we can paint?' "
Jennifer Casper, 17, a senior at Seminole High School, started the cheer team last November. Her grandfather is in a nursing home up north and both her grandmothers died before she was born.
"I don't really have any interaction with elderly people. People my age don't really get to hear points of view from elderly people," she said.
She gets a certain satisfaction out of being around the elderly patients.
"I understood very well that the patients in hospice were going . . . to die. I didn't really want to be attached for that reason. But you just can't help it," said Casper.
As a Bright Futures candidate, she knew she had to volunteer but didn't know where. Since her mom works for hospice, she thought it would be convenient and at least she could get a ride.
She enjoyed not only painting the mural, but coming in on Christmas Eve and dressing up like an elf, and even an impromptu visit with her friends on prom night to show off her vintage dress.
Now she is one of hospice's biggest fans.
"I thought it would be depressing but it's completely the opposite," she said.
Johnson, the center activities director, said the young volunteers have given residents at the home a real boost.
"They're just the best - so lively and friendly," she said. "They were so gung-ho - I got them the paints and they just went to town."
The students started the mural in February and finished in June. They are the physicians and nurses of tomorrow, said Barbara Carrier, hospice team volunteer specialist.
"They put in more hours than they have to," said Carrier. "What I see them do . . . my jaw drops sometimes. These kids are doing unbelievable things. They are just a great link to generations."
