Stella Schola students bring May Day cheer to elderly at Cascade Plaza Retirement Center
Published 10:33 am Tuesday, May 3, 2011
Twenty-two Stella Schola Middle School National Junior Honor Society students spent last Sunday morning bringing cheer and flowers to the elderly.
The 82 residents of Cascade Plaza Retirement Center in Redmond were greeted with bouquets of flowers and teens bringing stories to read and smiles into their rooms.
Students gathered in portable No. 7 at Stella Schola Middle School in Redmond bright and early on May Day to make paper cones which were filled with beautiful flowers donated by local businesses in the Redmond and Kirkland area. Red Apple Market in Kirkland, the Kirkland QFC, Fena Flowers of Kirkland, and Safeway in Redmond all generously donated flowers.
After making 82 bouquets, the students – accompanied by their advisor Brigitte Tennis and several parents – were off to Cascade Plaza, where for more than an hour students knocked on the doors of residents, exclaiming, “Happy May Day!”
After being invited into a room, students gave the flowers to each resident individually, with heartfelt hugs and thanks all around.
“One blind lady gave me a hug, kissed me on the head, and said, ‘God bless you’ to me! It felt awesome!” said sixth-grader Eliza Ludlam.
They read poems to the residents, sang a Happy May Day song, and listened to any wisdom or memories the residents wanted to share.
Tatum Ludlam, an eighth-grader, read from the children’s book “Olivia” to one 95-year old resident who taught seventh-grade English in her youth. “After I got to the part where Olivia does an Indian dance, she asked me to dance for her, so I did,” Ludlam said.
Tennis said service projects are an integral part of being a member of the National Junior Honor Society. In the past, students have held food drives for Hopelink, worked at the Forgotten Children’s Foundation, helped grant wishes for the make A Wish Foundation and raised money for Hurricane Katrina victims, and donated money to the Red Cross for the recent victims of Japan’s earthquake.
“Service can be small things that we do in the routine of the day’s work as we help others,” said Tennis, “or service can be for the benefit of others, without getting paid and without recognition. We are committed to the idea of volunteering our time and abilities to the creation of a better tomorrow.”
After reading a small poem from a book on American patriotism, sixth-grader Luke Matthews said, “I can’t wait to do something like this again.”
“Me, too,” Anamaria Tepordei chimed in, “I liked talking to the residents. I couldn’t stop smiling. I think I got as much out of it as the elderly people did!”
