The past couple weeks have been pretty hectic for our group. The first part of the last week, we were making calls to potential sponsors that we wanted to pursue. We had a few people respond the first time but most of the people we called did not respond until the next couple days. After making calls, we went to our meetings. Our first meeting was with Mr. Bell of Bell Mortuary. Mr. Bell was one of the biggest sponsors last year and is going to be another one this year. We are looking forward to meeting with more sponsors and making more money to use for the prom. The picture below is a screenshot of what we said to each of our potential sponsors over the phone. This is also a list of sponsors we have called and how much money we have gotten from some of them.
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This past week was an exciting week for our group. Well at least for 66 percent of our group. Ethan and I went over to Woodland Terrace this past Thursday (12-14) to attend the Granbuddies party they were having at the bank. Granbuddies is a program ran through Woodland Terrace where some of the residents are paired with a child that has similar interests or talents they do. Thursday was the day of their Christmas party. The kids received presents and got to open them in front of everyone. A couple boys got footballs and tried to play, but we stopped pretty quickly. After presents, everyone got pizza and cookies. The pizza was definitely better than school lunch so I was glad we went. Overall, it was pretty enjoyable to meet the kids and the other Woodland Terrace members that we haven't met yet!
This past week Jacob, Ethan, and I went over to Woodland Terrace again to interview a couple named Duane and Janet. Originally we wanted to show Caralee a couple of interviews we had already finished. Unfortunately, we weren't able to meet with her so we went with another interview. This interview went pretty well. They definitely had some interesting stories about their lives. They also had their dog Sassy with them. Sassy was a little spit fire and seemed to enjoy having some extra people over. Overall, Duane and Janet were a great couple to interview and I think Jacob and I definitely learned a few things throughout the interview.
Our group had to adjust on the fly a bit this week. We planned on showing Caralee the videos we have put together so far but unfortunately, she had meetings throughout the day on Wednesday. Instead of showing her the videos we interviewed a lady name Helen Smith. Helen was very welcoming and made a great interview. We talked about growing up in Kentucky and the large family she had. Helen had a furry friend with her throughout the interview. His name was Harley. Helen told us that she got Harley while her husband was sick around seven years ago. Overall, Helen was very open and energetic throughout the whole interview. Definitely one of the more enjoyable interviews we have conducted.
This was another successful week for our group. We attempted to go over the previous Wednesday but unfortunately most of the residents went on the field trip so we were unable to do another interview. We got lucky this week. Most of the residents once again went on a field trip, but we were able to interview a man named John. John had many interesting stories and seemed like he enjoyed it a lot. We learned many things ranging from what life in the Marines was like during WWII to what it was like driving around with dead bodies for a job while he was in high school. Overall, I feel like the interview went well. This was probably the most enjoyable interview we have partaken in.
This was once again another successful week. Our schedule was kind of wacky this past week due to Exit Interviews but we still got everything done that we needed to get done. Jacob and I went over to Woodland Terrace on Tuesday while Ethan stayed back to work on Joyce's interview. Jacob and I interviewed a lady named Retha baker on that Tuesday. The interview went very well. We actually switched up the roles a bit for this one. I asked the questions and Jacob recorded this time. Retha is actually the great grandma to a kid in our class. So we talked about him some as well. It was pretty interesting learning about how his family formed. I would say that this week was a pretty successful week, at least when it comes to getting things done.
Our group has accomplished a lot this week. This is probably the most progress we've made towards our project this year. We had some technical issues when it came to transferring the video on Monday. The video quality from my phone was pretty good but when it sent, for some reason, the quality got worse. So we decided to send the videos in smaller clips and that helped a bit. Jacob and I worked on our blogs on Tuesday while Ethan started to work on the video from our first interview. The next day Jacob and I went over to Woodland Terrace and conducted our second interview with Joyce Arthur. Joyce was so welcoming and really gave us a lot of information. If the rest of our interviewees are like Joyce, I think we'll have a great time doing these interviews.
We still hope to keep the schedule of doing the interviews on Wednesdays and working on editing the video on the other days in class. We'll also probably set aside a day to work on our blogs to make sure we stay caught up. So far everything is going smoothly, but who knows what the future holds with this process. No matter what happens, we'll find a way to make it work. Our group has tried to do many different kinds of ideas. Our ideas have ranged from bringing in therapy dogs for children to read to, to holding a fundraiser for cancer research where the winner would get to kiss a pig. Unfortunately, these ideas did not pan out, but through determination, we were able to contact Woodland Terrace and come up with a set idea.
Our group was not present for pitch day, but we do have a timeline for our video though. The day of pitch day, we went over to Woodland Terrace to get a tour of the area and learn the in's and out's of the facility. This is also the day in which our group gave Caralee (director of enrichment activities) some ideas of what we wanted to do during the first semester. We discussed the possibility of going bowling one day because the bowling alley has discounts on Wednesdays. We also mentioned the idea of having a shopping day for any of the residents that wanted to go. Later that week we came up with the idea of an intergenerational video. We discussed the idea with Caralee and she loved it. We had our first interview the next week. We decided that we needed to have a set timeline when it came to the video and conducting the interviews. We decided that we would conduct the interviews on our long day (which is Wednesday) and then we would work on the video on Monday, Tuesday, and Friday. So far this has worked pretty well, but we won't really know the effectiveness of this process until we conduct our next interview tomorrow. We cam up with many ideas, but over time we realized that this idea of working with Woodland Terrace would be the most beneficial. Jacob Ackerman, Ethan Westrate, and I are currently working with Woodland Terrace in New Palestine. Woodland Terrace is an independent living facility for the elderly that has been recently built on U.S. 52. There is also an assisted living and memory care building being built that is part of the whole facility. Our first idea was to make an intergenerational video of the residents living in the independent living cottages. An intergenerational video is basically many interviews of the different residents telling their life stories. We wanted to show people how these residents came from not only different parts of the state, but different parts of the country, and ended up all in the same place. We also wanted people to hear about the different experiences these people went through because sometimes you can learn just by listening to past experiences.
We hope to accomplish a few things with this video. We of course want to make a good video to show people, but most importantly, we want to learn. I feel like I learn a lot when I talk to my grandparents about life in general. Not everyone gets this opportunity though. This video can give people that feeling of talking to a grandparent and the opportunity to learn at the same time. Ideally, we would like to debut this video at the "Senior Prom" that we are continuing at the beginning of next year. |
AuthorMy name is Tyler Young. I currently go to New Palestine High School and I am a Senior. I am working on this project with my friends Jacob and Ethan. If you would like to contact me for any questions you may have about our project, you can reach me at [email protected]. |