Vitalia Senior Residences at Westlake 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, Vitalia Senior Residences at Westlake 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.

The Story Corner is a wonderful opportunity for the residents to have meaningful visits with their grandchildren, great grandchildren, and the children of their peers. It’s also a great opportunity for those residents who don’t have family or whose families live far away to still get to interact with children.

We will be inviting the local elementary and preschool to come out to our monthly Story Corner events.

We have not yet had a resident read a Story Corner book for recording, but we did have a resident read a children’s book for Black History Month. It was a very special moment for both her and me, and she refers to it often. I am sure we will find other residents wanting to read to children in our Story Corner events too.

Many of our residents recalled reading Bible stories to their children, as well as Roald Dahl, Shel Silverstein, Maurice Sendak, Beverly Cleary, and Dr. Suess, to name a few. Some residents recalled reading Harry Potter books along with their grandchildren as they grew up, too.

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.