Young people are bridging the generation gap - through a game of cards.
Twelve Year Four children from Bolton St Catherine's Academy are part of the RotaKids club at the school, which is supported by Rotary Bolton Lever.
As part of their local community action plan, secretary Poppy Taylor, aged eight, wrote a formal letter to the activities manager, Bev Stewart, at The Withins Care Home if the pupils could lead an activities afternoon with the residents.
As well as playing UNO with them, the pupils left them with some playing aids to help with their mobility.
Recognising that some of the residents would struggle to hold the cards, the young advocates sought out a solution.
They found some manipulative aids online that are suitable for the elderly, those with Parkinson's disease, or decreased gross motor skills.
RotaKid Isla Mason, aged eight, said: “We wanted to do something to bring joy to people in the local community and since Covid, we realised that the care home hadn’t been receiving as many visitors as before so we all discussed what we could do in a meeting, and we came up with the idea of teaching them how to play UNO.”
The group walked to the care home from their school, in a bid to be more ecologically aware and reduce the impact on the environment of the visit.
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Bev said: “We were delighted to receive the letter from the RotaKids Club, we used to have lots of schools visiting us in the past and it’s a shame that there aren’t as many anymore.
“Now that the RotaKids have been in and the residents enjoyed their visit so much, we will look to build up the link further.”
Withins Residential Home plans to invite the children to return at Christmas to join residents in watching their annual pantomime at the care home and the children have reciprocated with an offer for the residents to come to school to watch their Christmas Nativity production.
“Each week they meet to hold an official meeting, discuss business and identify issues that can be addressed in the local, national and international community and come up with plans to tackle them.”
RotaKids aim to endeavour to be fair to all, serve the community and to show respect for others. Through their constant efforts, the RotaKids at Bolton St Catherine’s Academy are certainly demonstrating their school values of Believe, Strive, Care and Achieve.
If you have a story or something you would like to highlight in the community, please email me at chloe.wilson@newsquest.co.uk or DM me on X @chloewjourno
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