Six students from Old Rochester Regional High School took part in a project to record the lives of residents at Sippican Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center, and then to provide them and their families with polished, full biographies. (Photo Courtesy Old Rochester Regional School District and MA Superintendency Union #55)
MATTAPOISETT — For the past 11 years, groups of students from Old Rochester Regional High School have volunteered to sit down and listen to the residents of Sippican Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center, recording their memories and the details of their lives.
The students then get to work, producing polished biographies, eventually presenting physical copies to the nursing home residents for them to keep and pass on to their families, preserving their stories for generations to come.
A group of six students recently completed biographies for several residents of Sippican Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center. The group included four seniors who were drawn from the high school’s chapter of the National Honor Society — Linden White, Grace Rousseau, Aiden Cabral and Austin Scully. The group also included Olivia Thompson and Tessa Ripley, two juniors who are working on the nursing home biography project for the second year in a row.
“Watching the students give the residents their reminiscences in a typed booklet form, which the students prepared, was a very emotional moment for both the residents and the students,” said Al Caron, a retired English teacher, who helped establish the initiative and continues to facilitate it each year. “I would like to commend these outstanding students who wrote the resident biographies.”
The nursing home biography project stems from a request from a man in his 90s at Sippican Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center who wanted to publish a book. The man was then connected with Caron, who was teaching a memoir course at Elizabeth Taber Library in Marion. Caron took notes from the man and made him a memoir.
“The guy loved it, and it all developed from there,” Caron said. “Many other residents had stories of their own. But they didn’t have a way of typing them.”
Caron then contacted the vice principal at Old Rochester Regional High School at the time. Then, a group of student volunteers were sent to collect stories at the nursing home and become amateur biographers.
Now, each year, Caron collaborates with the high school and its chapter of the National Honor Society to provide a group of volunteer students who meet with residents once a week for about a month. During that time, the students get to know the resident, working in pairs as they ask a variety of interview questions to compile their information.
Based on these interviews, students write biographies for the residents and their families, doing so under the guidance of English teachers Randy Allain and Kathleen Brunelle, who are National Honors Society advisors.
At the end, the students and project facilitators hold a celebration at Sippican Rehabilitation & Healthcare Center where students deliver the polished, complete biographies to the residents there and their families.
“It’s a wonderful program, and we look forward to being a part of it each year,” Brunelle said.
Superintendent Michael S. Nelson and Principal Michael Devoll commended the students for their work on the project, noting how well they represent Old Rochester Regional High School and how much of an impact they’re making with an often-overlooked segment of the community.
“We can see how much this means to the Sippican Healthcare residents and their families from all the stories we’ve heard about our students and their experience with this project,” said Principal Devoll. “Thank you to our Old Rochester Regional High School students who volunteer their time to help make a difference in such a special way in the lives of our senior citizens. It’s acts of charity like this that make us so proud to be from the Tri-Town community and to be a Bulldog.”
“A simple act of listening to someone and hearing their story can mean a lot to someone. I can imagine how much more special it was to be one of those residents whose story was not only heard but reproduced in such a thoughtful way,” said Superintendent Nelson. “Thank you to Mr. Allain and Ms. Brunelle, our National Honors Society advisors, and everyone who helped make this possible, including Mr. Caron and Sippican Healthcare. We look forward to our students continuing to impress us with their volunteerism, putting their academic and creative skills to use in such an inspiring way.”
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