A regular meeting of the minds is taking place every Thursday morning at the Westlock Continuing Care Centre.
The Each One Teach One Literacy Society is running a 10-week program to get young families working together with the residents to build story sacks to donate to various community agencies.
Facilitator Deonne Dranchuk said hosting the program at the continuing care centre is a great way to get the residents involved in activities, bringing the energy of a room full of young children and parents to the residents.
“They love being with the kids, being able to interact, paint and be active with us,” she said.
“It gives us some nice visiting time.”
The literacy society has also hosted Mother Goose sessions at the centre, which involves parents and children singing songs together — also something the residents have immensely enjoyed.
“It’s just a great opportunity to be involved with the residents,” Dranchuk said.
A story sack is, as the name implies, a sack with a storybook in it and several related activities to go along with the story.
“We usually have a fiction book and a non-fiction book,” she said. “And we try to have five to 10 activities in the story sack — they’re all reading and interactive activities.”
Some of the interactive activities could include something like a diorama with props for children to act out the story on, or perhaps a doll with several different outfits that change as a story progress, and instructions to make different arts and crafts related to the story. The sacks also usually include a non-fiction book on the same topic.
Last Thursday, the group was working on a story sack based around the popular Eric Carle book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar.
One resident was working on a stuffed caterpillar to go in the sack, while resident Rena Swanson was working to cut out cardboard strawberries, pears, plums and other food the titular character eats in the book.
She said she appreciates the opportunity to visit and keep her hands working — she doesn’t like to be idle. Her only complaint is that the program, when it runs, is for a limited time only.
“It’s nice, I miss it when they don’t come,” she said. “I can’t just sit and do nothing.”
Once the sacks are completed, they’re donated to various organizations in the community to benefit children: the Westlock library, various pre-kindergarten and kindergarten classes and the Parent Link Centre, to name a few.
But even without factoring in the benefits to the community, Dranchuk said there’s a huge benefit to participants as well.
“It’s nice to have people around; a lot of moms don’t have the opportunity to get out and get around, so this is a good opportunity for them to visit, have a coffee and meet someone they wouldn’t normally have the chance to meet,” she said.
The sessions, which run every Thursday from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. on the second floor of the continuing care centre, are open to everyone. Childcare and a small snack are provided free of charge.
