Ninety-six-year-old Sarah Hughes sits reading a book with Stults Road Elementary School student Jennifer Bussey. Something in the story leads Hughes to mention her time on a farm.
“A farm?” asks 9-year-old Jennifer, wide-eyed.
“Yes, I grew up on one,” Hughes says.
“I’ve never been to a farm before,” the fourth-grader tells her, her eyes big as saucers. Her curiosity encourages Hughes to elaborate on the rural experience.
This exchange is typical between volunteers in Senior Source’s Off Our Rockers program and their young charges. People with decades of experience sit down with kids who’ve been identified by their teachers as someone who could profit emotionally and educationally from interaction with an older adult, and they talk or read books or work on math problems.
“The kids really benefit from the attention and love the adults in this program are able to give them,” says Suzanna Swanson, director of the program.
Off Our Rockers has 230 volunteers in 80 schools in 10 districts, but the group is looking to add at least 70 more.
“There is such a great need, and the schools are so excited to get volunteers,” Swanson says.
Volunteers must be at least 50 years old and, in most cases, be able to drive themselves. They work with kindergarteners through third-graders, focusing on tutoring or mentoring. The minimum time investment is one hour a week.
“It gives them a way to go back to society. To know they’re making a difference in the life of a child that will affect them for the rest of their lives,” Swanson says. “I think that’s really powerful.”
Hughes agrees. She moved to Dallas from Illinois when she was 92 and lives in Presbyterian Village North, across the street from Stults Elementary.
“I was very restless when I first came,” she says. She heard some neighbors talking about Off Our Rockers, and she decided to check the program out.
“I was interested in doing something, getting out of the apartment.”
That was four years ago, and she has been with the program ever since.
Hughes, who taught junior high school for 25 years, says the experience has enriched her life and helped her reconnect with her teaching roots.
“They think of you as a grandma,” she says.
“I just enjoy helping the youngsters,” she adds. “It’s important to praise them so that they have confidence.”
For information about the Off Our Rockers program, call 214-823-5700.
