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MARSHA STRICKHOUSERThanks to a gang of gung-ho girls, older folks have an oceanfront view. They also had a cherished opportunity to share memories.
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 - 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 hoped that residents and staffers could paint it. But the outline sat for months, untouched.
Then came the Cheer Team, which was started last November by Jennifer Casper, 17, a senior at Seminole High School.
County high school girls make up the volunteer organization of Hospice of the Florida Suncoast. Most 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 forged between teenagers and seniors. The blank wall was transformed into a 9- by 14-foot work of art.
The patients from the long-term-care unit painted fish in their ceramics class for the wall. The oldest resident who worked on the mural was 99.
Millie O'Malley, 90, frequently visited the activities room to watch the girls paint and to chat with them.
"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 from 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 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?' "
Casper, the Seminole senior, has a grandfather 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 from being around the nursing home residents.
"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. Because her mother works for hospice, she thought it would be convenient and at least she could get a ride.
She visited the home on Christmas Eve, dressed like an elf, and stopped in 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 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 doctors and nurses of tomorrow, said Barbara Carrier, hospice team volunteer specialist.
"They put in more hours than they have to," Carrier said. "What I see them do . . . my jaw drops sometimes. These kids are doing unbelievable things. They are just a great link to generations."