To the rhythm of blue grass music, the Kendal Institute for Community Engagement burst on the scene on Wednesday, January 21. Created to promote fuller participation by seniors in the activities of the wider Granville/Licking County community, the Institute brought four guest speakers to the Amelia Room. After the entertaining performance by Big Red Blue Grass, a Denison student ensemble, the guests spoke briefly in turn, and their messages reinforced each other by highlighting three different routes by which seniors might engage more fully with their communities: as volunteers, as explorers, and as creators.
The audience of about seventy heard first from Denison President, Adam Weinberg, who explained how the university’s ambitions to become still more widely engaged with the Granville community coincide happily with the similar goals of the Institute and make a partnership between Denison and the Institute attractive. The next speaker was Connie Hawk, Director of the Licking County Foundation, who identified a diverse set of social service groups that stand in steady and compelling need of volunteer aides.
The third speaker was Jeff Brown, Superintendent of Granville schools, who spoke of the various ways in which school activities, both curricular and extra-curricular, offer a range of opportunities for senior participation. Jeff Gill, Pastor of the Newark Central Christian Church, was the final speaker, and he talked of many of the activities that the county offers to those who are seeking out encounters with the arts.
After the presentations, refreshments were available, as were opportunities for members of the audience to question the guest speakers. In some ways the array of opportunities that emerged from all of this seemed almost bewildering in its richness. The following are just examples:
VOLUNTEERING: with social service organizations; in and for the schools; as aides in museums and libraries; tutoring adults in the community; assisting people was tasks such as tax preparation and mastering English as a second language.
EXPLORING: through museum trips; with visits to places such as the Earthworks and the Dawes Arboretum; through taking classes at local universities or the Lifelong Learning Institute or, yes, at the high school.
CREATING: by experimenting with such activities as glass-blowing at The Works; by joining a community theater group; by learning how to play a musical instrument; by joining a singing group; by linking up with a class in painting.
The successful launch event triggered much conversation and interest in the Kendal community, and raised many questions about the crafting of follow-up steps designed to implement various ideas that were mooted about. On that subject, it's important to note that the next event in the Kendal Institute’s program for this year will focus on volunteer opportunities with social service organizations and is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, February 11.
