Children at a summer sports camp yesterday had a change of pace as they visited a seniors’ home to read to residents.

A total of 16 children from the Aries summer camp visited Somerset’s Packwood Home with their favourite books in a break from their normal programme of sports activities.

Gina Monroe, programme co-ordinator for the Aries Sports Centre, said: “The seniors do enjoy young people and a lot of the time the young people don’t get around to the older people.”

Ms Monroe said her background in literacy education sparked the idea for the youngsters to share their favourite books with the elderly.

“This is the last two weeks of camp and I figured it’s time to get the children back into school mode.”

She added she hoped that the experience would give the children a sense of awareness about older people.

Ms Monroe said: “Maybe this will encourage them to visit and do things for older people in their neighbourhood. Maybe they will connect more with older family members.”

Orin Lovett, 8, said the trip to Packwood was his favourite thing about the camp.

He added that he liked reading to the elderly residents because it made him feel good that he was helping the community.

Orin said: “They like it when other people come and visit.”

Amir Outerbridge, aged 9, said it was important to visit the elderly “so they can enjoy themselves”.

Matai Pitt and Nd’Nyjah Pitt, both 11, shared reading time with the same woman resident.

Nd’Nyjah said: “She said bless your heart and I said bless you too.”

Matai added: “We were happy about it because sometimes they are grumpy and sad and we wanted to make them feel happy and make their day.” Camryn Lines, 10, chose to read children’s classic The Ugly Duckling.

She explained: “It’s an old story and I thought they would know it.”

Bella Charleson, 9, added: “It might remind them of when they were younger.”

Karen Mitchell, the administrator at Packwood Home, said she encouraged young people to visit the home.

She added: “If you’re watching, the children just bring so much joy and it works both ways. The young people feel proud that their doing something for the elderly.”

Ms Mitchell, who has worked at Packwood for seven years, said there were benefits to exposing young people to nursing homes.

She said: “We always have to remember that the children are the future.

“They are going to have to take the responsibility one of these days to take care of this place.”

Ms Mitchell added that if children learnt about seniors from a young age, they could consider working in one as a career option.

She said: “We have to keep this industry going because Bermuda is an ageing population.”

Ms Mitchell added she also wanted to demystify care homes.

She said: “They get to see that the people here may be imperfect in some ways but they still have a lot of life to them.

“Sometimes people are negative about nursing homes but one thing that we forget is that this is their home and our job is to make them as comfortable as possible.”

Ms Mitchell added that older people could help educate the young and give them a sense of purpose.

She said: “If we can keep showing our seniors that they have value, then we get to learn a lot from them.”

She added: “It’s great because of lot of them worked in different industries. Some of these people are 90.

“One of my ladies is 102. You get to learn a lot.”

The Packwood Home’s oldest resident was 106 and aged 100 performed a piano piece for the Queen.

• Schools or organisations interested in a visit to the Packwood Home should contact Dianne Trott on 234-1459 or e-mail packhome@northrock.bm.