In a time of daily trauma, when the world is topsy-turvy, here is a sweet story.
In Southold, New York, Superintendent David Gamberg started a garden at school. The students learn to garden. They grow vegetables and flowers. He instructed students about how to make bouquets and arrange flowers artfully.
The flowers are in full bloom.
The students are bringing beautiful bouquets to residents of a nearby facility for the elderly.
Not big news, but small news.
We have to make a point of finding stories about people who are kind, decent, caring, compassionate.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Lovely story! Thank you.
There are a lot of good people in the world doing great things. Mostly we don’t hear about them because the constant blather of chaos and hate in the media sells. I’m tired of the ignorant Tweets and rantings done by our Swamp Monster President. I’m tired of the bigoted hatred that shows up daily.
How much better our society would be if we heard good, decent, compassionate, loving stories. Maybe that would be the goal of mankind instead of the hatred and fear that never seems to stop.
We can’t feel beauty if we don’t experience it…or read about it.
“The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart.”
~ Helen Keller
The school in which I taught was down the street from a nursing home. Each year when the music teacher prepared for the winter and spring concerts, our students would walk down the street to perform for the elderly residents. Some of the residents were brought to tears by this gesture, and the students learned to be compassionate and respectful. It was a mutually beneficial experience. Small gestures of kindness benefit everyone.
This is a restored Cincinnati Public school with a rooftop garden. It is accessible and in use by students, teachers, and parents. It is the result of efforts by one citizen to make a building scheduled for demolition a landmark in the community and to bring together experts so the garden is a year-round resource for learning and healthy foods. The school is in a food desert. https://www.greenroofs.com/projects/rothenberg-rooftop-garden/
Great story. Beautiful picture. Well done out there on the Island.
sweeeeeet!!!!
It is, in fact, not a good story. It is a sad story about old people who are forgot by their children, thrown away from their homes, from their lives, and put into a “facility” to die among others like them. Old people should live with young people, they should not live with other old people. The family culture in this country is broken. https://www.npr.org/2019/07/27/745017374/isolated-and-struggling-many-seniors-are-turning-to-suicide You are lucky that in your age you are full of energy and have your family and friends around you.
BA,
I don’t know if you are a bitter man or a bitter woman. I know the facility where the children brought flowers. People choose to live there because it is cheerful and meets their needs. No one there was thrown out of their home or cast aside. You need help.
No one in their right mind chooses to live in a nursing home — it is the last resort, when your family does not want you anymore, or you have no family. I posted a link from NPR, but you are calling me bitter.
BA, you really don’t know what you are talking about. Maybe you should quit while you are ahead. I know that place. People pay to get in and there is a waiting list.
I worked as a hospice volunteer for 9 years. I only have one patient now since the hospital in which I actively worked has closed down the hospice wing.
Some patients’ rooms were beautifully decorated with artifacts from their homes. Some had many visitors, both friends and family.
However, some didn’t get visitors and their rooms were standard hospital rooms. There was always the TV and a number of cable channels. Life gets boring when one sits in a wheel chair for months on end. Some were lying in bed for months.
I could tell which patients were actively getting visitors and some who were largely on their own. Some patients were beautifully kind until the end. Some, I was warned, might be violent. I never had any problems with even ‘violent’ patients.
I believe the hospital staff was overworked.
One of the things I always gave my hospice patients was a big hug. People who are dying long to be physically touched. The nursing staff doesn’t fulfill that requirement. My job was to talk to the patient and when they couldn’t talk or respond, I’d often pat them on the shoulder, arm or forehead. They all needed to know that someone cared. Each person deserved companionship. I worked to fulfill that need by visiting each week.
I try everyday to post on my FB something to make us smile. Some days it’s pretty difficult but I can find a something nice to share. Thank you for this story Diane.
One of the schools I long visited (free-lance for-lang enrichment) was the employee daycare/PreK/K of a hospital. The school bldg was adjacent to the hospital’s elderly care/ rehab wing. Every Thurs aft, the 4y.o.’s visited with them. The patients loved it. The kids thought of them as surrogate grandparents.