By Reagan Neville and Lucy Shaughnessey, Hingham High School Freshmen
As freshmen at Hingham High School and members of Girl Scouts, we wanted to do something meaningful for our community while working toward our Girl Scout Silver Award.
We decided to focus our project on helping seniors living with Alzheimer’s disease and dementia reconnect with happy memories and experiences from their lives.
Our idea was inspired by our experiences with grandmothers that had Alzheimer’s Disease and what we wished was available to them. We came up with the idea of collaborating with residents at Linden Ponds, a local senior living community, to create memory scrapbooks filled with pictures that reminded them of special moments, people, and things they loved.
We had the opportunity to work with three wonderful women who were excited to participate. Although we originally planned to use their personal photographs, that wasn’t possible, so we decided to get creative and use pictures from magazines instead.
As we spent time getting to know the women, we learned about their lives and interests. One woman loved sailing and dogs, so we found pictures of sailboats and dogs for her scrapbook. Another woman had been a teacher for children with special needs, and the third woman was also a teacher who enjoyed painting. We looked for pictures that reflected their interests and experiences so that each scrapbook would be personal and meaningful.
What made this experience so special wasn’t just creating the scrapbooks. It was spending time with the women, listening to their stories, and seeing how happy they were to have us there. We enjoyed getting to know them, and we left feeling like we had received just as much from the experience as we had given.
This project was so personal to us. Reagan’s paternal grandmother and maternal great-grandmother both had Alzheimer’s disease. Lucy’s grandmother had Alzheimer’s Disease. Knowing how this illness affects people and their families made us want to do something that could bring happiness and connection to those experiencing it.
After working with the women, we started thinking about how wonderful it would be if other students could have the same experience.
Our hope is that this project will become an ongoing activity through the Generations Club at Hingham High School, giving future students the opportunity to visit local senior living communities, spend time with residents, and help them create their own memory scrapbooks.
The Girl Scout Silver Award encourages us to make a difference in our communities and create projects that can have a lasting impact. For us, that means hoping our project continues long after we’ve completed the requirements for our award.
We learned that making a difference doesn’t always require something big. Sometimes, it’s as simple as sitting with someone, listening to their stories, and showing them that their memories and experiences matter.
We are grateful to Linden Ponds and the three amazing women who made this experience so special. We hope this is just the beginning of a tradition that brings generations together and creates meaningful memories for everyone involved.