Young Hearts Club paints pumpkins at local nursing home
Young Heart Club members at Vitalia painting pumpkins. Photo courtesy of Max Moses
October 13, 2022
Solon High School (SHS) has a variety of clubs, but the Young Hearts Club is one of the newest, as it was started just last year in 2021. The club was created by SHS senior and president Ava Zweig, who tells us more about the Young Hearts Club and their latest event.
Q: What exactly is the young hearts club?
A: The young hearts club is an infrastructure for community service for the elderly, and we are partnered up with Solon’s local elderly home Vitalia. The goal of the club is to bridge the divide between generations and for students to volunteer their time at events to spend with the local senior citizens.
Q: What was your guys’ latest volunteer event?
A: Our latest event was Wednesday Oct 12, 2022 and it was Pumpkin Painting.
Q: What inspired this idea for the event?
A: We try to do themes for events, and since we do them every month and this month was October we did something fall/halloween themed. One of the other Young Heart branches in Manhattan also did pumpkin painting, so I drew some inspiration from there as well.
Q: How did the event go?
A: It went amazing, we had about 50 students to go and about 50 showed up. We only had about 15 seniors, but it was a huge success regarding participation, and the volunteers usually group together for different individuals, so it makes it more personal. Vitalia graciously donated all of the supplies for the event, and the volunteers just had to bring a mask and a smile. Also, Starbucks in Solon willingly donated five travelers worth of coffee for the seniors and volunteers for the event. It was an overall huge success.
Q: What and when is your next event?
A: Since we do it by month, it’ll be sometime in November. I always play the events by ear, and decide a little closer to the start of the month. But, we have done a lot of arts and crafts lately, so I am hoping to do something active next.
The Young Hearts Club will continue to try and bridge that divide between the two generations of seniors and students. There will be new events every month and anyone is welcomed to join the club.