Editor’s note: This is the fifth article in a student writing project from the students of Mary Messer’s class at Gray Elementary in North Delta. The stories reflect community projects that students have done to improve the lives of others throughout the COVID-19 pandemic. The articles run once a week on the Optimist website.
Have you ever wanted to do something nice for seniors, but didn’t know how?
In my impact project I wanted to impact the lives of seniors at the Delta View care home, owing to the fact that I always want my grandparents to be happy, so I thought it would be nice during COVID to try and make other people's parents/grandparents happy since they can't see their families at all.
After I decided that I wanted to make videos to entertain the seniors, I sent my work to Kelly Foston, the recreation director. I told some jokes subsequent to reading my picture book. Then I did those breathtaking magic tricks. I’m going to say this again, I was really happy doing this project for the reason that I get a warm, happy feeling when the elderly people are happy.
I read the book Doors in the Air by David Weale and Pierre Pratt. It was about this boy always exploring new places. In one of my card tricks I showed that I had a normal deck of cards, then I got my mom to pick a random card, she got a three of clubs, then after I shuffled all the cards, I made every card but one a three of clubs.
Since I’m filming myself doing this nice gesture, I can't see the seniors actually watching my video. When they are watching my video I think they will get some laughs and I think they will get the message in my book and be happy that I chose a book with an agreeable and gratifying message. The reason I couldn’t just walk in there and read and entertain them in person is COVID. They have safety protocols that we need to follow, so I had to entertain them virtually. It was still awesome!
I found this project really fun, so why don't you try to do something nice for your community as well? I guarantee that you will have so much fun and will want to do more!
