Seniors to Seniors program marks the start of something good

By AMY ADAMS
news@readthereporter.com

Joey Doll graduated from Westfield High School (WHS) on Thursday, May 30, but she still has one more project to complete before she heads to Ball State University in the fall.

In late June, Doll will be one of 18 students from WHS and Westfield Middle School who will travel to Seattle to compete in the Family Career and Community Leaders of America National Leadership Conference. In the Chapter Service Project category, Doll will deliver a presentation about her work helping to create a program at the Shepherd’s Center of Hamilton County called the Seniors to Seniors program.

The Shepherd’s Center exists to promote and support independent lifestyles for senior adults. As part of its Together Today Program, which serves to enrich the lives of adults ages 55 and over and to prevent isolation through fun, educational activities, the Shepherd’s Center development office had the idea of facilitating interaction between senior adults and high school students to bridge the generation gap.

“We were looking to work with a school to make it happen,” Shepherd’s Center Marketing and Special Events Manager Heather Luljak said. “We were also looking to give back by offering an internship.”

It was WHS Internship and Capstone Coordinator Michelle Goudy’s idea to combine those two goals – to establish an internship for a high school student who would help create and manage the program.

“I try to fit students with the perfect positions for them and for the organization,” Goudy said.

Doll first reached out to Goudy in April of her junior year with her interest in finding a marketing and business internship after taking a class at WHS called Career Exploration and Internships. Mark Ewing, who teaches a variety of service and leadership-oriented courses at WHS, agreed with Goudy that Doll would be a perfect fit for the internship.

As an intern during her second trimester, Doll planned one gathering a month, January through May, for senior adults and high school juniors and seniors. In addition to planning activities, seeking sponsorships, and arranging caterers for lunches, Doll also recruited and managed an average of around 20 WHS volunteers a month.

“The end goal is to get our kids to recognize the importance of giving time to something bigger than yourself,” Ewing said.

The students and senior adults played BINGO and trivia that spanned the generations. The students even taught the senior adults some TikTok dances, and the senior adults taught the students some new games.

After planning the first Seniors to Seniors event, Doll was 100 percent sold that it was the right internship for her, Goudy said. Even more importantly, she recognized that it gave her direction for what she wanted to do in the future.

“I was really impressed with Joey,” Luljak said. “She volunteered outside of the internship. If she was given a task, she was able to walk it all the way through without being given a step-by-step, which is an achievement. She always did it with a smile and had a great attitude. Everyone here at our center loved her.”

In fact, after her internship was officially over, Doll chose to stay involved with the Seniors to Seniors meetups during her third trimester.

“I love being able to be a support for these senior citizens,” Doll said. “I can tell that the whole program is such a big family. They give us such a warm feeling, and we want to give that back to them.”

The feeling seemed to be mutual. Luljak said that they would see an increase in attendance on the Seniors to Seniors days, and Doll said that some senior adults joined the Together Today program after hearing from friends about Seniors to Seniors. Ewing, who attended each Seniors to Seniors gathering, said some of the senior adults expressed that the interaction changed their perception of youth today and gave them hope for the future.

Doll hopes that the program will continue to grow even after she has moved on to pursue a degree in sports administration with a minor in marketing.

Though Goudy hasn’t found a replacement for the position yet, she said that will be one of her goals for the first trimester.

“You need somebody who isn’t afraid to fail,” Doll said. “You’re not always going to get a ‘yes.’ They need to be a people-person and a problem solver.”

As far as the Shepherd’s Center is concerned, Luljak said they intend to resume the Seniors to Seniors program in the fall. In addition, the Shepherd’s Center will be opening a new location in Noblesville in early August for Together Today programming on Fridays.

To find out more about the Shepherd’s Center, visit shepherdscenterofhamiltoncounty.org.