by Laura Glesby The New Haven independent
A class of fourth graders from Fair Haven School serenaded over 100 seniors in English, Spanish, and Cherokee at the Atwater Senior Center’s Thanksgiving gathering early Tuesday afternoon.
Music teacher Anna Denos conducted as the children sang, drummed, and shook maracas to the gentle beat.
“Oh, that’s nice — Spanish and English!” commented 81-year-old Juana Curbelo from a table near the front as the students sang a bilingual “Demos Gracias.”
Juana Curbelo: “I don’t feel lonely anymore.”
Curbelo, who lives in East Haven, was one of over 100 seniors to gather for the senior center’s annual community Thanksgiving.
Attendees captured the kids’ performances on video as volunteers served Thanksgiving staples such as turkey and pumpkin pie.
This year, the community meal and performance was organized by staff of the nearby Mary Wade senior care center, Fair Haven Alder Sarah Miller, and representatives of the police and fire department. It featured dozens of volunteers from the Fair Haven Community Management Team, Fair Haven Community Health Care, CitySeed, Grand Avenue Special Services District, and a variety of city staff, local politicians, and community members. Police and Fire Department affiliates, Fair Haven Community Health Care, the management team, the Rotary Club, and State Reps. Al Paolillo and Juan Candelaria contributed a total of $3,000 to make the gathering happen.
Event organizers included Fire Chief John Alston; Fair Haven Alder Sarah Miller; Mary Wade staffers Ivette Oliveras, Jessica Soto, and Maria Olmo; and Fair Haven District Manager Sgt. Chris Alvarado.
The senior center, said city Elderly Services Director Tomi Veale, is a place where community members can check in on each other and look out for one another’s mental and physical health. “We are like family,” she said.
Miller said that Fair Haven School’s participation in the event represents “the future of this building that we want”: a vision of the Atwater Senior Center as a place for intergenerational connections.
Two of the fourth graders who performed on Tuesday noted that their favorite part of the performance was the medley of languages.
“I was so nervous,” one of them said.
Another said that the Cherokee song, “Wen’deyaho,” was especially exciting to sing because “it’s another language to learn.”
Some older Fair Haven School band students followed the choral performance with a jubilant brass interlude.
Their performance encapsulated one beloved feature of the Atwater Senior Center, according to 75-year-old West River resident Alice McKenzie.
McKenzie said she’s been coming to events at the senior center for about four months. When she first stepped inside, she felt nervous about not knowing how to speak Spanish. She wondered if she’d be able to find a sense of community where many people who might not be able to understand her, and where she might not be able to understand them. But she pushed herself to go anyway, figuring, “Somebody there would translate for me.”
McKenzie recalled sitting in the back of the room her first time at Atwater. “One of the ladies came and asked me if I was all right,” she recalled. “That made me feel good… It means so much.”
“The people here are like a family,” McKenzie said. “They know my leg bothers me.”
When she waits outside for her ride home, someone’s often there to wait with her.
And when she arrived for the Thanksgiving lunch on Tuesday morning, she initially sat in the back of the room — but she said that a staff member approached her and helped her move closer to the front, where they knew she would be able to hear better.
“And now I can laugh and enjoy,” McKenzie said.
Alice McKenzie found community despite a language barrier.
She wound up sitting at a table with Curbelo, who said she started coming to programs at the Atwater Senior Center about two months ago.
“I was feeling kind of lonely,” Curbelo said. “I decided to come here to make friends, socialize.” She attended structured events, like bingo, but sought “mostly to have the company of the people.” She’s run into people she’d previously lost touch with.
“That made me feel better,” she said. “I don’t feel lonely anymore.”
That’s exactly the message that one fourth grader hoped to convey to her elders through the performance.
“No matter where they go,” the student said, “they can always make a friend.”