The Parkway Senior Living Brings Story Corner to the Community

Planetary Scientist Carl Sagan once said, “One of the greatest gifts adults can give – to their offspring and to their society – is to read to children.”

Putting books into the hands of children and forming meaningful intergenerational relationships is a priority for Arrow Senior Living communities! To support our efforts, we have launched what we call “Arrow Story Corner.” Each month a resident records the reading of a children’s book that highlights an “Arrow Tradition,” and these stories are shared online for all to hear. This tradition has grown from our company-wide Black History Month Story Corners, where residents all around Arrow Communities read children’s books highlighting black figures in history.

To support small businesses and literacy efforts, we host a fundraiser and partner with the EyeSeeMe Children’s Bookstore to purchase and donate copies of the books we read to local schools, and then a portion of our fundraising efforts also support The EyeSeeMe Foundation. The Foundation’s mission is to create programs that increase childhood literacy for under-served communities and to promote African American History and multicultural literature that will increase respect and tolerance for diverse cultures.

This month, The Parkway Senior Living is taking things a step further and embarking on the adventure of monthly Story Corner events in our community. One of our very own residents will read the Story Corner book of the month to children, as well as other residents, and share in a craft event and snack time. The featured book will then be added to our community library for residents to read to visiting grandchildren. A copy of the book will also be donated to local schools with which our community partners.

Story Corner is a wonderful experience for all generations. It’s nice to give visiting grandchildren and great grandchildren an activity to do with their loved ones while they are visiting. It’s also a great opportunity for those residents who don’t have family that live nearby to still interact with local children from the community.

Parkway has connected with several elementary schools in Blue Springs, but the strongest connections would be William Yates Elementary and James Walker Elementary. We have been pen pals with them the last couple years and know the kids enjoy reading, so Story Corner would be a perfect time for them to come to our community and see our residents in person.

One of our residents read a Story Corner book recording during Black History Month last year. It was a great experience for both her and me. We enjoyed practicing and learning new words together. We had a good laugh that we should know all the words in a book for 2nd graders!

Many of our residents enjoyed reading Bible stories to their children, as well as Dr. Seuss, I Love You Forever, Sesame Street, and Winnie the Pooh books!

All our Arrow communities encourage adults to give the gift of reading to youngsters. The relationships formed during the time spent between the reader and listener can be life changing for both generations.