A group of Chatham school children are making sure it's a 12 Days of Positivity to remember for some local seniors.
To mark day three of the 12 Days of Positivity, Seniors Day, Grade 3 and 4 students from St. Ursula Catholic School visited residents at the Grand Retirement Resort in Chatham on Wednesday afternoon. Each of the students got paired with a senior to paint a ceramic tile.
According to Cheryl Woodman-Sherwood, community relations with Grand Retirement Resort, she was looking for something to do during this year's 12 Days of Positivity. She connected with Tracy Havens, franchisee for Crock A Doodle Chatham-Kent and the pair came up with the idea for the seniors and children painting event.
"I knew Positivity Day was coming up so I called the positivity program and asked them if we could have something done for Positivity Day," Woodman-Sherwood explained. "Tracy from Crock A Doodle is one of the sponsors. She and I had talked together and we came up with this idea."
Havens donated her time and donated the ceramic tiles for the event. She then connected with her friend, a teacher at St. Ursula, to arrange to bring the 20 children to the retirement home.
Although they often host activities for residents, Woodman-Sherwood said getting to bring in children for the seniors to connect with was a unique experience that she's hoping to do more of.
"It gives them a little smile on their face, something to look forward to," she said. "You can see, just looking at them, all of them are enjoying it and talking to the children. A lot of them have family out of town so they don't get to connect with their grandchildren."
According to Woodman-Sherwood, they even got a special visit from Captain Positive himself during the event.
"He was giving the positive drive, he was giving out stickers. He thought it was great," she said
The 12 Days of Positivity started on September 23 and runs until October 4. Each day has a different theme and the goal of the initiative is to encourage an optimistic attitude for residents and to make Chatham-Kent a more positive place overall. The 12 Days of Positivity continues on Thursday with First Responder Health Care Day. The Chatham-Kent Health Alliance will be marking the occasion by inviting police, fire and emergency responders to help serve lunches to patients and visitors at both the Wallaceburg and Chatham site.
