Grasso Students and Fairview Residents Bridge the Generation Gap …with iPads!

A decade-old intergenerational program that pairs Groton high school students with some of the community’s elderly is at once touching and inspiring.

Thursday, something really wonderful happened. 

At Fairview Odd Fellows Home residents worked with select upper class students from Ella T. Grasso Southeastern Technical High School as the 11th and 12th grade kids helped teach residents how to use new iPads purchased through an AT&T grant awarded the skilled nursing facility. 

Students helped residents with reading, writing and sending emails and had some fun too playing tablet games (Angry Birds, perhaps?)

The 10-year-old program is an ongoing partnership between Grasso and Fairview where select 11th and 12th grade students come to Fairview once a week to work with the residents.

According to a press release, the AT&T grant allowed Fairview to “purchase additional equipment that will help the program expand its reach, helping more residents with every visit from the students from Grasso.”

Shawn Carpenter, head of the Grasso Information Systems department, has been overseeing the intergenerational project. 

"Grasso Tech Information Systems Technology junior and senior year students have been going to the Fairview Odd Fellows Home since 2003. Our students try to go every Thursday on a rotating basis during the school year and they assist residents in the program to have e-mail contact with their families," he said. 

"Our students get to know them and some very close bonds have been fostered over the years. This has been a very successful program on our part and the students gain a great appreciation for serving their community," he said.

State Sen. Andy Maynard joined the program Thursday to celebrate its success, the release read.