Part of what makes the holiday season special are traditions. Spending time with family and friends. Singing carols. Making cookies. And, of course, decorating a Christmas tree.
Last week, students from a Littleton school carried two fresh-cut evergreen trees down the High Line Canal Trail to the Anthem memory care community to take part in the tree-decorating tradition with senior residents there.
For one woman living there , Norma Collier, the visit reminded her of her 10 grandchildren and one great-grandchild unwrapping gifts under the tree at family Christmas celebrations. Collier was holding on to the tree-topping angel for one of the trees until it was time to crown it.
“Itap fun, you know, because you’re not around your own grandkids,” Collier said.
Most of Highline Place’s more than 60 residents are living with Alzheimer’s disease, according to Elle Fore, life environment director for the center on Broadway just south of Arapahoe Road.
“Memory care patients are special in that they are very receptive to love, affection and attention,” Fore said of the benefits of events like last week’s tree decorating. “For a lot of residents, visits from loving strangers might be just as impactful as visits from family.
“We never know how much they retain but itap the moment that counts,” she added.
The students came from Littleton Public School’s nearby Ի. Principal Ashley Broer said the school serves students who have struggled in traditional education environments and benefit from more support. A big part of Options approach is to provide unique, out-of-classroom experiences for kids. Recently, students went ice skating, Broer said. The trip was less about learning to skate and more about students learning how to pick themselves up after a fall, whether it is on the ice or in life, she said.
Experiences like volunteering at the memory care center help students, “truly learn how to be successful adults,” Broer said.
Fifteen-year-old Rosary Duran, a high school freshman, was part of the Options group on hand last week. She passed out cookies to Highline residents while fellow students handled putting lights and tinsel on the trees.
“It just makes me happy to make them happy, to bring joy,” she said.
The visit was set up as part of the students work with the private nonprofit, , also based in Littleton. The foundation, which has engaged Options students for more than a decade, develops and operates programs that prepare kids for the future through experiential education, executive director Sean O’Shea said. The Options students went on a hike last week and worked together to select and cut down the trees they brought to the Highline to decorate, O’Shea said.
“All these kids have gifts and we want them to understand they have power and can share with others,” O’Shea said.
According to Fore, it was the foundation that reached out to Highline Place about coming over. She hopes it was the first of many visits from Binning groups to the center.
Fore emphasized that she and her colleagues at Highline Place do all they can to make sure the center is fun and engaging for residents. There are many volunteers who come to keep residents company, play music and engage in other activities to enrich lives. While the holiday season brings a multitude of events — the calendar has something nearly every day through Christmas — Fore said she is always looking to add more activities other times of the year.
“We like to remind our volunteers that our residents like visits in April and May too,” she said.
To volunteer at Highline Place memory care community contact Elle Fore at efore@anthemmemorycare.com. You can reach the center by phone at 303-731-1954.