Students from Acadia Middle School joined with seniors from the Halfmoon Senior Center, Tuesday, April 29, to share both wisdom and talent.
During the third annual Intergenerational Respect Day, students from the school’s orchestra played four pieces for the seniors.
President of the Halfmoon Senior Center Robert Emmette said, We try to teach kids to have respect for seniors.
The seniors were impressed with the performance.
`There is a lot of talent at Shen,` said Bea Mooney, 79, speaking of the students.
Two student violinists were featured during the event.
Jessica Wang, 10, and Emily Zhang, 11, performed a trio with teacher Desiree Burke for the seniors before lunch.
`I didn’t think it was that scary,` said Wang, of playing in front of the more than 50 seniors. `It was fun.`
Wang has played the violin for three years.
`I think it is fun to learn from them [the seniors] because they have been around a long time,` Wang said.
Students and seniors shared tables at the event discussing everything from what they aspire to be to what they have done in their lives.
`These kids are fantastic,` said Norma Pascarella, 73.
She said people seldom hear about the good things kids do.
`They are all very well mannered,` she said.
After a lunch of pizza, director of the Halfmoon Senior Center Eileen Pettis shared the stories of seniors Charles Kent, Antonie Semanek and Fedora Michaels in a segment she calls `Living History.`
Kent was 26 in 1946, when he won the Mr. America competition, said Eileen Pettis, director of the Halfmoon Senior Center, as she passed around photos of a young Kent during the event.
When Kent was 15, he was struck with pneumonia and was self-conscious about his lack of muscle, so he began lifting weights.
These were not the type of weights in gyms today though; they were homemade weights, which Kent made from film cases.
He moved to Halfmoon more than 20 years ago. He was an optometrist and in his spare time enjoyed making miniature glasses out of his patient’s old glasses, according to Pettis. She said Kent was also a cartoonist.
Now 88, Kent still enjoys exercising and visiting the Halfmoon Senior Center, where he has been a member for more than 10 years.
Semanek, 87, fondly known as Toni, was born in Leningrad, Russia, where as a child she learned to speak English, German and Russian.
In 1941, when Germany invaded Russia, Semanek was 20 years old. She was taken to a forced labor camp with her sister Sonia, where she was used as an interpreter because of her knowledge of different languages.
While Semanek does not know what happened to her parents or another sister, Ann, she was able to escape to the United States when her sister Sonia married an American soldier who sponsored Semanek’s move to the states.
Her 14 year-old brother was killed by shrapnel during World War II.
Semanek lived in Binghamton before moving to Halfmoon in 1985 to be closer to her son, Paul.
She is active with the Senior Center’s lunch program, often setting the tables and serving the food. She has been with the Senior Center since its establishment more than 20 years ago.
Semanek was the recipient of the Capital District Senior Issues Forum Senior Lifetime Achievement Award.
Michaels, 83, was hidden in her basement for several years after Germany invaded Italy during World War II. She was 14 years old at the time, according to Pettis.
Michaels joked that the basement was unlike the finished ones the children are used to seeing.
Michaels met her husband, John, following the war, Pettis said.
She learned to speak English through the American Red Cross before immigrating to the United States.
Michaels has been a member of the Halfmoon Senior Center for more than 20 years. She organizes the center’s ceramics classes and spends her time volunteering at Our Lady of Hope in Latham.
When most children think of seniors, it never crosses their mind that at one point these old adults were once their age, Pettis said.
Intergenerational Day was born of a chance meeting between two old friends.
Three years ago Pettis saw the parents of her best friend from sixth grade while working at the center.
Pettis requested the daughter’s number and they decided to meet up. In talking, the women decided to dedicate a day as part of Respect Week, where young people and seniors could get together in a non-intimidating manner and get to know each other.“
