‘GRANDKIDS’ FOR HIRE
College students connect with seniors to help curb loneliness
When Andrew Parker’s grandfather began suffering from dementia three years ago, his grandmother had to start taking care of the house and caring for him. It was hard work, and one day Parker got the idea to hire a college student to help out. “I said, ‘Hey, can you go hang out with my grandfather and make him a sandwich or something? I’ll pay you, lets see how it goes.’”
His grandfather loved it. And more importantly, so did his grandmother. For a few hours, he said, “She got to go do her own thing.”
It got Parker thinking. “There’s so many seniors and so many college students out there.”
So in January, the 30-year-old Miami resident launched a business called Papa, after his name for his grandfather.
It connects students with seniors for light housekeeping or driving chores, but the company’s real goal is in its slogan: “Grandkids on-Demand.”
“We are specifically a service that links two generations,” Parker said.
“Our emphasis is this is a really fun day for a senior. Someone who might say, ‘I don’t want to bother my daughter or son but I want someone who can be with me for a day so I don’t have to annoy my kids.’”
To date, the company has about 250 members who pay a monthly fee of US$15 to $30 to belong, and then pay $15 per hour for visits by students, or Papa Pals.
Pals must be enrolled in a fouryear college, or be working on a master’s degree, a social work degree, or a nursing or medical degree. They must have a four-door car and pass a background check. And they are given a personality test, created by the company, that looks for people with empathy and patience and the ability to draw people out in conversation.
“The biggest thing we’re focusing on is curing loneliness,” Parker said. “If a senior calls, they’re not calling and saying, ‘I’m lonely.’ But what starts as a visit to a doctor or a grocery store can go from a two-hour visit to a 10-hour visit.”
Connie Piloto of Dallas hired a Pal for her mother, Maria Piloto, 80, who lives in Miami and has dementia. “I asked for someone who could speak Spanish because that’s my mom’s primary language,” she said.
The intimate and casual nature of the relationship — and the relative youth of the Pals — can also make them easier to work with than more traditional aides, Piloto said.
“These young kids are not scared of new technology and they ’re not scared of telling the doctor, ‘We really need to call her daughter,’ and they get on the phone and they FaceTime me. I feel like I can text or get on the phone more easily with Pals than I can with a traditional service. For me, it does feel like family.”
Being with a young person also stimulates her mother, Piloto said. “Mom gets to talk about her days as a youngster,” she said, adding, “I don’t know what it is with pairing an octogenarian with a millennial, but it works.”
Barbara Carroll-Marks, 66, a retired systems analyst and author in Pompano Beach, Fla., says the interactions she has with her Papa Pals are a stark contrast to her experiences with other paid care providers, who didn’t seem like they wanted to be there.
“I loved them from the first day I got them,” she said. Marks, who has Parkinson’s disease, alternates between the same three Pals, and they come almost every day, often for six to nine hours. It reminds her of being with her own grandchildren, she said.
“If I cry — sometimes I cry, because I’m pretty sick — they will just try to make me feel better,” she said.
“The other day I was crying and Rachael, one of my girls, rubbed my back, and it was such a compassionate thing to do.”