After retiring from R.F. Staples School nearly 15 years ago, Pembina Lodge resident Anne Sloniowski walked through the doors last Tuesday morning to work with junior high students in the cooking lab once again.
Sloniowski was at the junior high cooking class to make sausages from scratch, along with seniors from all over the community, students from R.F. Staples and its Outreach School, as well as members of the Westlock RCMP detachment.
“I love working with the kids again,” said Sloniowski.
“I’ve been here on and off, but it’s nice to be back, it’s like coming home. I like kids and I think the students need to mix with adults like this — the worst orangutans are usually the best ones.”
On Tuesday, May 4, the Westlock RCMP detachment bridged the gap between seniors and teenagers with a lesson on casing sausages at R.F. Staples junior high cooking lab between 9 a.m. and noon.
It’s the first of four events the police have planned to get youth and seniors working together throughout the course of the year, new Westlock RCMP Staff Sgt. Dwayne Rawson said.
The half-day workshop, part of a new police initiative to build positive relationships with youth from the area and develop a positive police presence, was buzzing.
“I’ve done this before and it works,” he said, talking about his work experience with the Fort Saskatchewan community,” said Rawson.
“I call it building a bridge between the seniors and youth. To me, it’s priceless.”
Rawson replaced former Staff. Sgt. Brian Clayton as the top cop in Westlock earlier this spring and he’s eager to start building connections within the community.
He added there are more events to follow with the schools next fall.
“For a lot of kids it’s the first opportunity they’ve had to work with a police-officer on a positive note and that’s when it pays off,” said Rawson.
And the message hit home, according to Grade 9 R.F. Staples Outreach School student Tyler Hank.
“All I really do is sit in class and go on the computer and do random school work and this is more active,” said Hank, adding he prefers to move around and cook more than spend the day sitting in his classroom.
“It’s pretty good — I know most of the people in the room to.”
