Making Friends
A pen pal program connects individuals from Crossmount Memory Café and students from South Corman Park School.
What does a group of individuals living with dementia, their caregivers, and Grade 3 students from South Corman Park School share? Friendship.
The Crossmount Memory Café is a social and recreational support program for people living with dementia. The program is hosted twice a month at Crossmount Village, just outside of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan.
University of Saskatchewan (USask) College of Nursing associate professor Dr. Roslyn Compton (PhD) co-created the Memory Café with Sarah Streisel from Crossmount Senior Health Corp in 2019.
Last fall, the Memory Café partnered with Bonnie Dahl’s Grade 3 classroom from South Corman Park School. Twenty-two students were paired with Memory Café participants to create 22 sets of pen pals.
“We started with an initial exchange of letters, which included an ‘all about me’ profile, and the friendships continued to grow throughout the school year,” said Sarah Streisel, director of wellness at Crossmount Senior Health Corp. “Every month we exchanged a set of letters between groups or participated in some type of shared activity.”
Beyond letters, the students and Memory Café participants exchanged Christmas cards, homemade bookmarks, sand creations, and poetry.
In March and May, Memory Café participants and students used Zoom online to take part in hands-on activities “together.” In March, Crossmount’s Landscaping Manager Dylan Johnston also led the groups through a seed bomb workshop, while Streisel led the groups through a canvas painting activity in May.
On June 7, the Grade 3 students visited Crossmount to join the Memory Café participants for a morning of in-person education, sharing, playing, and companionship. Johnston gave a talk about Crossmount’s orchards, while everyone joined in a variety of outdoor lawn and card games, and a BBQ. The visit ended with the students sharing with each of their pen pals, a book of poems they wrote.
The visit was captured in photos, so both participants and students have lasting memories of the friendships they created.
“In the beginning, I was excited to have the students partner with the Memory Cafe participants, as I thought it would be a fun way for the Grade 3’s to practice their writing skills,” said Dahl.
“I never imagined how excited the kids would be to receive letters and gifts from their friends or how thrilled they would be to finally get the chance to meet their friends in person. Watching them introduce themselves politely, push in chairs, ask great questions, play games, laugh, and joke together filled my heart. Many parents have commented that this was one of the most meaningful days for their children. We were more than blessed to participate in this program.”
“People living with dementia and their caregivers often experience social isolation and loneliness,” said Compton. “The Memory Café is an opportunity for people to come together and take part in dementia-friendly social activities. The pandemic has made it very difficult to continue these activities in-person. The virtual pen pal program with South Corman Park School has been such a wonderful experience for Memory Café participants and the Grade 3 students.”
