This term the COVID-19 pandemic has prevented our Kindergarten students from visiting two Aged Care Facilities. These were regularly visited last year by Emmanuel’s Student Leaders. However the Kinder have been able to correspond in written form with residents in both Regis and Fairway Rise.

In consultation with the Leisure and Lifestyle Coordinators at both facilities our Kindergarteners have been able to participate in an exciting new venture called the Adopt a Grandparent Program, where individual students are beginning to form a bond with particular residents through the mutual sending and receiving of letters, cards and pictures.

On Monday, I was privileged to bring a package of replies from Fairway Rise for our Kindergarten students to open, and the accompanying photographs pick up beautifully on the spirit of eager anticipation and joy that was present across the room as we took the time to read and display each child’s personal response from a resident.

There are no words that can truly capture the value of this program for these residents, many of whom have been deeply impacted by loneliness, due to the isolation imposed on them, because of the pandemic. Some of them let their adopted grandchild know in their replies that they were keeping the pictures the student had sent them displayed in their rooms.

Through this inspiring initiative our youngest students in Emmanuel are learning from the beginning of their education the value of caring for another person in a practical and meaningful way. They are being taught the importance of building a loving relationship with someone who is very different from them in many ways. They are discovering how to find ways to connect with their adopted grandparent, and appreciate their differences and find things they may have in common.

Above all, they are learning the value of reaching out beyond themselves and the power of friendship to bring lasting joy and hope to some of society’s most vulnerable people in a time of great global need, and in the winter years of these elderly folk’s lives.

Jenny Berry - School Chaplain