THE first time Fred Hassell walked into a nursing home he was terrified. He'd never seen such old people in all his life. That was 26 years ago and he's no longer afraid.

"When I first saw seniors at a rest home I was totally afraid. I had never seen people so old.

Mr. Hassell is the director of the Senior Islanders' Programme that provides educational and entertainment opportunities for Bermuda seniors. He's 51 years old and concedes that as his own hair begins to turn grey, the senior citizens he works with are looking younger every day.

This week the Mid-Ocean News met Mr. Hassell shortly before the kick-off of a special seniors' jazz concert in Victoria Park on Wednesday. The event is just one of many organised during Senior Citizens' Week from June 2 to 9.

THE theme of this year's Senior Citizens' Week is Seniors as Resources. And a special men's group in the Senior Islanders' Programme called Character Builders looks at how men in the community can use their age and experience to help others.

Nine per cent of Bermuda's population are over the age of 65, and that number will only increase as the "baby boom" generation ages.

"Character Builders is strictly for men," said Mr. Hassell. "We aren't trying to say women don't have character. It's for men, because we were having difficulty getting male members, and the moment the men see a bunch of women with their knitting they think the group isn't for them and they leave.

"So we had to organise the group to be better suited to their interests."

Mr. Hassell was partly inspired to form the group by former US President Jimmy Carter's book, Seniors for Schools.

"In his book he says there is virtue in aging," Mr. Hassell said. "He talks about things like how to use age and experience to benefit the community and the decline in good manners, morality and discipline in young people. That made me think that now was a good time for our elders to pick up this challenge."

Character Builders is more about what senior citizens can do for the community than about what the community can do to nurse old people through their "twilight" years.

The group look at ways for fathers and grandfathers to strengthen the character of Bermuda's young people. One of the ways they do this is by visiting local schools and talking to students about their life experiences.

For example, one man from St. David's told students about how he grew up on St. David's Island. His grandparents were mariners. When he was a young boy, he went with his grandparents on a barge and was out of school for two weeks.

"This was in the 1920s when few Bermudians had even seen the Statue of Liberty," said Mr. Hassell. "That was a real Moby Dick-type story and he can relate it to young people. I have heard fabulous stories."

SOMETIMES as many as eight members of the Character Builders Club show up to talk to the kids, even though the sessions are usually only an hour long.

"In a very simplistic way, with their homespun philosophy and way of life, they inspire the young people," said Mr. Hassell. "Many of them have worked three jobs in their lives. They have been exposed to racism. They didn't have the best education. They came up in two World Wars, and yet, somehow, these gentlemen have made it through."

He said even if all the men did not get a chance to say something during the school visits, their presence still sent a message of caring and concern.

"We have to do more than just say: 'In my day I listened to my aunties and uncles and did what they told me.' We have to take a whole different approach to strengthening the character of today's young people.

"Today is the 'me' generation. The time that we live in encourages selfishness and self-absorption."

He said the Character Builders programme was simply joining hands with all the civic organisations that had struggled for years with young people such as churches and schools.

"We are simply trying to meet this modern experience head on," he said. "We have good young people but they are living in a time where nothing is static. Now there is so much choice and it brings confusion. We want to strengthen young people so they can make ethical and responsible decisions.

The Character Builders group also produce a newsletter for both young and old that inspires people towards better behaviour and etiquette.

They offer sage advice like: "Something easy to say but hard not to do is making personal comments about a person's dress, manners or habits. Can we get along by being thoughtful regarding the comfort and pleasure of people around us? The other question is do we exercise good manners when we travel overseas or enter communities where we are strangers?"

"It is nice to speak about character and virtue, but we have to live and model it," Mr. Hassell said.

MANY of the men in Character Builders have talents such as music or carpentry. They tell the students how they practised hard to learn to play an instrument, or studied under an apprentice to learn woodworking.

"It took time and patience to learn their crafts," Mr. Hassell said. "It took teaching, discipline, punctuality, and being able to follow directions. To have these men tell these stories is very good for the young people."

The response from students and teachers has been phenomenal. One generous teacher sent the Senior Islanders' programme fuel vouchers to go towards refilling the group van. In a letter to Mr. Hassell, the teacher - who did not wish to be named - wrote: "When I saw the your wish-list in the newspaper (where charities reveal their needs), I reflected on your visit to my class and thought of all the positive impressions and influences that the gentlemen made on our students and continue to make on students all over the island.

"We can never measure just how far-reaching those memorable moments may go to direct, redirect or simplify inspire some young persons life. Please continue your good work."

On Wednesday, several members of the Character Builders group participated in the jazz concert in Victoria Park as part of Senior Citizens' Week. The idea for having a special week dedicated to senior citizens started 16 years ago.

"Former residents Lydia Pollard and her daughter Naomi introduced us to Seniors' Week in 1986," said Mr. Hassell. "They were living in New York where they already had a special week.

"They connected us to their friends in the New York Office on Aging who graciously supplied us with information for celebrating seniors' contributions to the country nationally. Since then celebrations of the week on the island has grown in activities and events involving 15 to 18 senior groups, businesses, volunteers and Government ministries working to make the week a grand success each year."

"With Seniors as Resources as the theme this year, we hope to galvanise the community into celebrating seniors and positive aging," said Mr. Hassell.

During his time, Mr. Hassell has watched friends pass on and people age.

"It has been quite an experience, but also an inspiration," he said. "There are so many wonderful things available for seniors now."

He said in the last 25 years he had seen a different brand of senior citizen emerge.

"For the senior citizens I used to know, a half a loaf of bread was good enough. Not any more.

"The new seniors have a different mentality. Some of them have had a better life, and education. They are used to computers. They have gone out to dinner to eat in the evenings. They have travelled and they see leisure as a part of life. For some people leisure is optional and others it is a part of life.

"In the old days you worked until you dropped. The concept of retirement was new when I started two decades ago. You stayed in the Garden of Eden until the day the Lord took you. When I started they had just started up the social contributory pension plan. The word 'senior' was new."