The Fremont Senior Living Brings Story Corner to the Community

Planetary Scientist Carl Sagan once said, “One of the greatest gifts adults can give – to their offspring and to their society – is to read to children.”

Putting books into the hands of children and forming meaningful intergenerational relationships is a priority for Arrow Senior Living communities! To support our efforts, we have launched what we call “Arrow Story Corner.” Each month a resident records the reading of a children’s book that highlights an “Arrow Tradition,” and these stories are shared online for all to hear. This tradition has grown from our company-wide Black History Month Story Corners, where residents all around Arrow Communities read children’s books highlighting black figures in history.

To support small businesses and literacy efforts, we host a fundraiser and partner with the EyeSeeMe Children’s Bookstore to purchase and donate copies of the books we read to local schools, and then a portion of our fundraising efforts also support The EyeSeeMe Foundation. The Foundation’s mission is to create programs that increase childhood literacy for under-served communities and to promote African American History and multicultural literature that will increase respect and tolerance for diverse cultures.

This month, The Fremont Senior Living is taking things a step further and embarking on the adventure of monthly Story Corner events in our community. One of our very own residents will read the Story Corner book of the month to children, as well as other residents, and share in a craft event and snack time. The featured book will then be added to our community library for residents to read to visiting grandchildren. A copy of the book will also be donated to local schools with which our community partners.

We believe that reading is a way to connect us with worlds unknown to us. What adventures we can have and what places we can go. We think sharing with children is a way to bridge the gap with both generations. Older adults love the idea of sharing with the children and the children benefit from older adults reading to them.

We are starting a project where we share story time with an elementary down the street from us. We will be going to library time to read and have them come to our Story Corner on Saturdays with their families.

When asking if they enjoyed the readings on Story Corner, I was met with lots of stories. They loved listening to Story Corner and hearing books they might not have read to their children. We have a lot of teachers in our community and they were all smiles remembering the children over the years.

When asked what books they loved to read, a lot of the residents said Goodnight Moon, of course. They also liked The Little Golden Books. The Little Engine That Could was one of the favorites, as were The Poky Little Puppy and The Velveteen Rabbit. The stories the residents told were about their children waiting for a bedtime story or sitting quietly on their lap and having a special moment, and then later with their grandkids.

All our Arrow communities encourage adults to give the gift of reading to youngsters. The relationships formed during the time spent between the reader and listener can be life changing for both generations.