WINTER NEWSLETTER:

STAYING WARM BY WARMING HEARTS

Thank you for another wonderful semester of partnership! The Rashi School and NewBridge on the Charles community have shared so many rich experiences this year. Here are just a few highlights of our ongoing intergenerational journey!

STATS, SNIPPETS & SNAPSHOTS

STATS

195 students engaged with NewBridge this semester

12 scarves are being knit during the (k)new Knotty Knitters after-school program

41 trays of NewBridge's famous potato chips shared through the revamped Lunch Bunch program

6 NewBridge residents supporting academics in Rashi classrooms

SNIPPETS & SNAPSHOTS

NewBridge residents visited The Rashi School for a tour of the building that shares the beautiful 162-acre campus. Led by two Grade 7 Ram-bassadors, the tour included stops at the Makers Space, gymnasium, and art room. Rashi students visit NewBridge all the time, so it was fun for students to see their NewBridge neighbors roaming the hallways on their side of campus!

Have you ever wanted to learn how to knit? Last year, several Rashi students approached NewBridge residents and dreamed up an intergenerational knitting club. Knotty Knitters is the result of that dream! This year, Rashi students and Traditional Assisted Living residents have the opportunity to learn from one another while they knit and knot blankets alongside each other. It's the perfect way to knit together connection and creativity.

Lunch Bunch has returned! The pre-COVID tradition brings Rashi Grade 8 students over to share stories and potato chips with Traditional Assisted Living residents during lunch to sit and chat. Sharing a meal with someone makes for fast friendship, and it is safe to say that "egg-celent" friendships are being built during these monthly "meatings"!

Climate activists and NewBridge Independent Living residents felt inspired to teach students about climate change. Utilizing their monthly time with Rashi Kindergarten and Grade 1 students through the Grandfamilies program, residents took the reins and taught students all about trash, recycling, and composting. Together, the Grandfamilies examined compost bins, discovered what decomposition means, and sorted through lots of trash. Nothing like getting your hands dirty while learning!



COMMUNITY REFLECTIONS

“One of the most powerful opportunities we have on our multigenerational campus is the ability for our Rashi students to connect directly with NewBridge residents. The relationships that develop through the various times we meet, whether through Mitzvah Makers, individual grade level programs, or our middle school Making Memories program, we have the opportunity to uphold our sacred Jewish value of l'dor v'dor, from generation to generation, passing on histories, stories, and invaluable life lessons.

A particular program of study that is now in its second year is that of our Grade 5 students learning about and connecting with NewBridge Memory Care residents. As Head of School, it is my pleasure to do a read aloud of Lois Lowry's Tree. Table. Book., a beautiful story of one girl connecting with a neighbor who is moving through the phases of dementia. By reading this novel and understanding dementia, and then working through education with our NewBridge partners, our students are prepared to meet and engage in relationship with Memory Care residents at NewBridge.

L'dor v'dor is alive and well on our multigenerational campus, and we feel such gratitude to engage in it with all residents at NewBridge.”

Pictured above: Very special guest Lois Lowry comes to talk to Grade 5 students about her 2024 book Tree. Table. Book. which tells the story of an unlikely multigenerational friendship between two Sophies– one who is 11 and the other 88. Read out loud by Emily Charton, the 5th graders explored the meaning behind multigenerational relationships and the hardships of dementia. They then came to visit residents in our Memory Assisted Living to build foam Hanukkah houses and form meaningful multigenerational relationships, just like the book!

Fifteen years ago, Rashi middle schoolers began visiting memory care residents and patients living at NewBridge. These visits became known as Making Memories, and quickly developed into an impactful 3-year program that allows Rashi middle school students to learn about dementia and dementia care, while also creating intergenerational friendships. Grade 8 student Berkeley W. reflects below on her time building one of those friendships with Memory Assisted Living resident Ellie (pictured, right, with Berkeley).

"Making Memories is a program for NewBridge that truly is different from anything else. Coming back to the same smiling face each Friday brings a sense of comfort in belonging. For me, that comfort lay in seeing a resident named Ellie. At first, like most things that are new, it was a challenge to make conversation with her, but as time went on, going to NewBridge each week was something I would look forward to. Knowing that I brought something new to a repetitive routine that she would go through each day. Now, I have been with Ellie for two years and created a relationship built on kindness and our differences.

She might not remember my name or face, but she remembers how I make her feel, and I will continue to remember the impact her smiling face had on my day and how her wisdom will impact the rest of my life."

Every Friday afternoon, NewBridge Independent Living resident Karl Singer (pictured in his fun math outfit) goes over to Rashi to teach, what he calls, Fun Math Friday. Now in his second year of volunteering at Rashi, Karl meets with Grade 5 students to train their eyes and teach them to see math in their everyday lives. Inspired by nurturing his youngest son’s early passion for math, and later volunteering for nearly a decade in an elementary school, Karl sees math as something that should feel fun, accessible, and connected to the real world. As Karl puts it,

“I want to show them that math is fun, math is everywhere, and math is the hidden structure that explains the world.”

NEWSLETTER EDITORS

BENJAMIN R.

Benjamin R. (pictured) is this year's student newsletter editor. Reflecting on his Rashi experince, he says, "When I first got started working with NewBridge, I was 5 years old and in kindergarten. I would line up beside my classmates and walk from our classroom to NewBridge, where we spent time and played games with the residents. Well, now I am in 8th grade and my perspective on NewBridge has dramatically changed. I no longer feel like I’m just merely playing games with the residents, I’m connecting with them. I wanted to share the experiences that people had, similar to mine. After a lot of hard work, we finally finished a complete newsletter, the one you’re reading right now! By publishing this, I feel a sense of deep pride and happiness at the prospect of spreading the connection between Rashi students and NewBridge residents and the sense of enjoyment and fulfillment that comes from time spent with the residents."

Interested in being next year's student newsletter editor? Email HannahSilver@hsl.harvard.edu!

HANNAH SILVER

Hannah Silver (pictured 'keeping the balloon up' during Making Memories) is the Program Coordinator of the Hebrew SeniorLife Volunteer, Youth and Community Engagement Department. While she has never been a newsletter editor prior to this moment, she has been in the education realm for quite some time and graduated last December from Boston University with her Masters of Education. Originally from Chicago, Illinois, she is still trying to figure out why everyone here is so obsessed with Fenway Park, when clearly Wrigley Field is superior. She always tries to integrate her interests (like baseball!) into the work she does at Hebrew SeniorLife, and feels especially grateful for the incredible team—at both The Rashi School and NewBridge on the Charles—that she gets to work with daily.

COMING UP

What started out as Rashi Readers will transition to Rashi Movers (pictured) as Pre-K join the Traditional Assisted Living community monthly for their morning movement therapy! The residents loved moving and groovy with students the first two months, and are looking forward to sharing more moves (maybe even the Grapevine?) in the future!

In December, Leo Baeck and Rashi Grade 8 students, along with NewBridge Indepedent Living residents, will be coming over to NewBridge for a flower arranging tutorial. In partnership with Theo's Flowers, they will be crafting beautiful bouquets to hand deliver to the Memory Assisted Living residents they worked with during their three years in the Making Memories program. How fun that the Leo Baeck students visiting from Haifa, Israel will get to meet Rashi's Grade 8 Making Memories friends!

In May, Grade 7 students will embark on a new oral history project and interview NewBridge residents who lived in Boston during the Civil Rights Movement. NewBridge is filled with living artifacts, and the Grade 7 students are looking forward to learning from many of them!

Happy snowman building,

Hannah and Benjamin