“Connecting seniors and students through music & movement.”
“Bridging the Gap is an event that utilizes music, movement, and one-on-one discussion to connect senior citizens from the Atria Las Posas Community with students from Cal Lutheran. The purpose of this event is to foster compassion, learning, and understanding between these two age groups in a fun, inspiring, and interactive way.”
CLU Alumni, Licensed Zumba Instructor, and former Her Campus Cal Lutheran Campus Celebrity, Stacy Gross organized two wonderful events connecting the residents of Atria Las Posas Senior Living with the students of Cal Lutheran. Many clubs came out to support Stacy, from L.A.S.O., ESSM, Club Teach, and MYLife to H2O, Her Campus, DMC, and Ballroom Club. With the help of Colleen McCutchan, the Engage Life Director at Atria Las Posas, Stacy successfully put on two great events that consisted of intimate senior/student interviews, a Zumba Gold chair class, and ended with loving goodbyes, yummy smoothies, and eternal smiles!
Stacy said she was inspired to put this program together because she “noticed on the senior side how resilient and inspiring these residents were and I love my college students and this group. I though ‘I feel like the two of them together would be amazing. I’d love to see them work together and learn from each other.’ I mean, where else do you have college students and senior citizens coming together? I love connecting people through music and movement, so I thought that would be really fun for these residents to see. I went to Colleen and told her my ideas and she said ‘Yupp, love your idea! Let’s make it happen.’ I reached out to people, everyone was incredibly enthusiastic and this came together so easily because of that.”
Stacy and Colleen held two amazing events: one on October 17th and the other on Halloween. Both were from 11:00am to 12:00pm.
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First, students and seniors were paired together and took part in the icebreaker section where they shared stories and interesting facts about themselves. After some time of getting to know each other, the students introduced their senior partner to the group along with a fun fact about them! The seniors did the same for the students.
“I look forward to Zumba all week! It’s my absolute favorite thing to do. I think Stacy is wonderful and I love the fast paced music. I try to talk other people into coming because it’s just plain fun. It was lovely having you students come because it’s interesting to find out your aspirations and ambitions. You know, it’s so different nowadays. It’s so awesome to here that all these students have the ambition to be somebody in the world.” -Joan Niebank, Resident (pictured above)
“I just love all the enthusiasm of the people here.” -Mary Gallucci, Resident
Next, everyone participated in a fun, upbeat Zumba Gold chair session taught by Stacy! The residents and students were smiling and laughing, relishing in the electric energy encompassing this event.
“I just love Stacy. She reminds me a lot of myself when I was her age. She’s so energetic! My passion is keeping my seniors happy and healthy through fitness, recreational programs. We do a lot over here and Stacy is just part of the family! They love it and they’re passionate about it. We perform at our yearly luau, where we have the residents do a Zumba number for their families. Stacy works hand in hand with me as far as promoting fitness and its importance. Eventually, we’re hoping to have our residents come to Cal Lutheran and do the same thing there. We hope to instill some great relationships between the youth and the seniors.” -Colleen McCutchan, Engage Life Director at Atria Las Posas
The inspiring event ended with heartfelt goodbyes and refreshing smoothies.
“I had a great time listening to stories, I have always listened to my grandma talk about family stories. This event emphasized to me the importance of listening to your elders because you can learn from them and some stories are quite interesting. I was glad that they had fun. I have always wanted to do something like that, now I can check that off!” -Paola Ortiz, Student
“I learned a lot from this experience, including that it doesn’t take much to find connections between generations. It is possible to have fun while being around older people. It was really eye-opening to hear their stories and advice. They made me realize how much we forget to stop and appreciate the little things. Being so busy often keeps us from realizing how much we take for granted, and these seniors really reminded me how important it is to do that. It was such a rewarding feeling to see them with huge smiles on their faces! It made me think about how we usually perceive seniors as old and boring people who have nothing in common with us, but this experience certainly proved otherwise!” -Carina Perez, Student
The next Bridging the Gap event will be on Saturday, November 21st from 1:00pm-2:00pm at Atria Las Posas Senior Living. If you are interested in participating in this uplifting event, please contact Stacy Gross at sgross@callutheran.edu.