By Hayley Ferguson

Students and seniors use their imagination to publish book

Jul 8, 2019 | 12:50 PM

Medicine Hat, AB – This past school year, a group of seniors living with dementia and high school students got together to prove that just because you can’t remember, doesn’t mean you can’t imagine.

They are now taking that goal a step further, by publishing a book.

The program called ‘Imagination Alive’ paired up 23 Medicine Hat High School drama students with 11 seniors from South Country Village.

Twice a week they would meet up and create stories together based off photographs they were given.

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The program was such a success that it was decided the stories needed to be published into a book for the community.

“They were just incredible so we wanted to do something to honour those.” Said Sharon Mickey, program manager with LEARN (Lifelong Education and Resource Network).

One of the other goals for the program was to bring together the two generations who Mickey said can both be misunderstood and are led to believe they have nothing in common.

“We didn’t really know what to expect when we started this program because it was a pilot project.” She said. “What blew us away was just the connections that happened between the two groups of people. How the residents were so excited to see their students and how the students were so excited to see the residents.”

Copies are available for purchase from Mickey for $20, the cost of publishing. Contact Mickey at familyliteracy@mhc.ab.ca to purchase yours.