i2i Director Marie Firth turns 100!!

September 2015

Marie Firth and Carly Alexander, participants in the 8 year unprecedentedly successful Meadows School Intergenerational Immersion Project, Coldstream, BC, share a moment at Marie’s 100th birthday. Carly presented Marie with a bound version of the ten children’s stories that author Marie penned over a decade. These stories became the popular Intergenerational Literacy Project (info at intergenerational.ca). Carly, along with other grade 5, 6, and 7 students, illustrated each book and profits from sales of the books fund an annual i2i scholarship of which Carly, now a graduate, was the 2015 recipient.

Marie has sat on the Board of i2i as a supporter for six years and shared her thoughts on Intergenerational Immersion on her 100th birthday,

“The children come every day for two months. They spread out through the building mixing with the seniors. Hence the saying, ‘Whose Grandma Are You?’. (see: You Tube short of a one-hour documentary of this title at intergenerational.ca Home Page) Each youngster takes a proxy ‘grandparent’ from the senior group and forms a group of their own. The children take turns working in the small General Store with us, in the dining room setting tables, at Art and Crafts, and outside in our lovely grounds playing badminton, horseshoes and bocce. We even did some drawing, spelling, reading stories, cooking, writing and singing. We work together on a plan for learning. They share their school work and we helped them, and they helped us.”

A prototype of the Meadows School Intergenerational Immersion Project is in its fifth transformative year at Williams Lake Retirement Community, Williams Lake, BC.

For more information on Intergenerational Immersion working models, pre-school to middle school, contact i2i@intergenerational.ca. Be sure to follow up-dates on the Intergenerational Immersion Association here, under ‘Latest News’.