With Visions of Community Service Dancing In My Head
It was the pitch that did not need a pitch. A lovely PR lady asked if my kids would be interested in helping elderly residents learn to play the Wii at a local senior center last weekend.
To my ears, this sounded like the perfect way for my daughters to get involved with the community during the holiday season. I pictured them each paired up with an AARP sweetheart. My girls would remind them of their granddaughters while eating up the attention and probably some hard candy from their Kleenex-filled pockets. The afternoon would fly by too quickly as they mastered video games, moved on to jigsaw puzzles and enjoyed the cookies & punch offering. The duos would hit it off so well that they'd exchange addresses so they could become pen pals. Later, in the car, my daughters would fill me in on their plans to go back and learn to knit and help with scrap-booking. Perfect, right?
Well, what went down wasn't exactly that scenario. It was more like this:
Old Lady: What's going on here?
My Daughter: They're showing us how to play a Wii game.
Old Lady: A what?
My Daughter: A Wii game.
Old Lady: Weed?
My Daughter: No, Wii. It's a video game system.
Old Lady: Weed? My Daughter: Wii.
Old Lady: W-E-E-D? My Daughter: No. W-I-I.
(pause)
Old Lady: Well, when I was your age we used to W-O-R-K.
Then she told my daughter that she made all of her own clothes because they had to during the war and shuffled off to complain at the front desk about all the "little people" running around. And surprisingly, she wasn't the only resident not so happy to see us. Another woman asked if we had rented out the community room where the event was being held. I tried to explain that we were there to play with them, with her, but she only would look at me like I had two heads. I'm pretty sure she complained as well.
There were many residents that enjoyed both the games and the interaction but I regret to report that no pen-pals were made that day. I still believe it is a great idea and I'd like to try again. Maybe with a little perseverance, my kids can charm even the most curmudgeon to play a game of bowling or two. This effort of is going on around the country thanks to Nintendo and the senior communities willing to host them ...and the little people that follow.
Kimberly lives with her family in Virginia where she writes about her daily life on her personal blog Petroville, talks photography at Joslyn Place and mixes it up with her friends around the Beltway on the Washington Times Communities. You can also find her on Twitter @Kimberle procrastinating housework.
An original DC Metro Moms post.
