Dog stick libraries make fetching project
Seniors with dementia and students work together
When 14 high school girls were put in a room with 53 seniors with dementia, they came out with five wooden boxes to fill with dog toys.
Students from Regis Jesuit High School and residents of Chelsea Place memory care built dog stick libraries, wooden crates filled with dog sticks, tennis balls and other toys to distribute to dog parks throughout Aurora. The community service project taught the students how to treat people with dementia, and it gave the senior citizens an activity.
“I’ve really liked this project because it’s just really cool to see how all of the elders got really into it,” said Olivia Baptiste, a junior at Regis Jesuit. “One of the people I was working with, John, we were sanding down one of the crates, and at first he was just sitting down and just doing a little bit, but then by the end he was standing up and doing the whole box.”
For the past two weeks, the girls worked side by side with the residents to build the libraries. Everything from shopping for the wood at Walmart to sawing it down was done by the cross-generational teams. In their makeshift woodworking shop, the students paired themselves with one or two of the residents and chatted while they worked. While one person held a piece of wood in place, the partner moved the saw back and forth.
Some of the seniors have worked with wood before, but few of the students have. By the end of the two weeks, though, they could handle a hammer or chop saw as if they’d been woodworking all their lives. Junior Juliette Bruner said she’s begun fixing things around the house, like her bed frame.
The girls have also learned a bigger lesson at Chelsea Place: how to befriend someone with dementia.
“One of the things the girls learn is wherever someone’s at in their reality, you just join them,” said Jenni Dill, the life management director at Chelsea Place. “If he thinks he lives on the moon, then, hey, we’re getting on the rocket ship. That’s just the way it goes.”
Dill said she strives to teach the students that quality memory care is not what it once was. Where memory care used to be reality-driven, it’s now about acceptance. Dill said it’s pointless
to argue with someone who has dementia because all it does is make them feel stupid or hurt.
The residents have gotten a kick out of collaborating with the students. Dennis Evans, a resident at the community, said he’s enjoyed being a sidekick to the girls, and he’s excited about the dog stick libraries because he likes to play fetch with his dogs.
“If I’m being honest, the first day I had to remember these people have dementia, but now, I can honestly say I forget about it half the time,” Juliette said. “I’ll be laughing with Dennis and I’ll just act normally like I do with my friends. And you just totally forget that they have dementia because they’re still who they are.”