The Haven at Lake Oconee, an assisted living facility in Greensboro, held its community event, “Back to School With Seniors,” on Aug. 22.
The school supplies drive is one of the facility’s first major events since its opening in October of last year.
“Back to School With Seniors” took place at the assisted living facility from 4-6 p.m. and included activities for children, such as bingo, crafts, and reading stations. The elementary school students had the chance to interact with many of The Haven’s residents.
“We wanted to throw an event for the community, to give back,” said Keyoshae McBride, The Haven’s senior living advisor. “The event is about connecting generations and supporting education.”
According to McBride, the purpose of the school supplies drive was to “connect generations” and support education. She believes that the various activities at the event would be a good way to show kids different job opportunities by allowing them to get to know the residents.
“We want them to express themselves and to get to know some of our seniors around here,” she said. “We want them to be able to ask [the residents] questions and about what they wanted to be when they got older, basically to get a better aspect of life.”
McBride noted that multiple organizations within the community contributed to the recent event, including the Boys & Girls Club and a local therapy dog group, Canine Angels. Greensboro’s First United Methodist Church provided various donations, which were used to support the Victory Train early childhood education program.
“We received plenty of notebooks, papers, pencils, rulers, crayons, colored pencils, and notepads,” McBride said. “We had a lot of different donations that came in that we really appreciate and can’t wait to give back.”
The event also included visits from both the fire and sheriff’s departments to teach kids about safety precautions.
“The fire department will be giving tours of the fire truck and tips on fire safety, and maybe will encourage some of our youth to think about whether they want to become a firefighter or things they don’t know that may interest them in the future as well,” McBride said. “The sheriff’s department will be giving them safety tips, information about gun safety, and what to do in certain situations.”
With the decision to host this event, McBride believes that the school supplies drive was good for the residents to experience, because they could interact with the kids.
She says it helps to let the residents interact with the children, as they often cannot see their families very frequently.
“The residents, they love the children; and for seniors, not everybody’s family is around, or not everyone has family to visit them often or even visit them at all,” McBride said. “Bringing the kids around can also help some kids who may not have grandparents, or the kids who don’t get to see their grandparents, and just give them that loving feeling.”
Overall, McBride hopes that the event had a positive impact on the visitors and helped them see The Haven’s support for the broader community.
She believes the event will likely return for the following school year.
“I hope they see that we love our community here at The Haven just as much as they do,” McBride said. “We want to let the community know that we are here for all of them, and not just our seniors, but for our children as well.”