Yesterday, the elders visited the Iroquois Library for the reception for the Annual Refugee Elder Art Exhibit. We'll have more (lots more, in fact) on that later, but I had to share what happened prior to us viewing the exhibit. While waiting for the library to open, the elders were all enjoying the beautiful weather, as were some other patrons of the library. Two young men had a soccer ball and had been kicking the ball back and forth for a little bit, but they weren't necessarily interacting with any of the elders. A few minutes later, I was visiting with a few of the elders and looked up to see several of the elders gathered near the young men.
And then the most amazing thing happened. These two young men began kicking the soccer ball back and forth with the refugee elders. Then they tossed the ball back and forth, then invented some other games, and even played Monkey in the Middle (some caught on quicker than others). All the while, more and more elders were venturing over to where the young men were playing. It is so incredible to see young people taking time to share experience with older individuals, especially the refugee elders. While I didn't get the names of the two young men who were so wonderful to share a little bit of their time and themselves with the elders, I did get to catch them on film:
What a wonderful community in which we live! Thank you to those two extraordinary young men for offering all of us such an encouraging experience; I hope that each of them will show up at the Elder Program to volunteer more of their time... maybe we should be considering forming an elder volleyball league? Or perhaps we'll just stick to some pick-up games outside the library...
But because I couldn't resist showing you the elders trying to grasp the concept of the game Monkey in the Middle:
Stay tuned; we'll meet our final intern next week, and we'll also share more about the Elder Art Exhibit. Exciting things are happening at the Louisville Refugee Elder Program!
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