Ridgefielder's New Endeavor To Bridge Teens, Elders Online

RIDGEFIELD, CT — There's always an opportunity picking away at the edges of every crisis, and Ridgefield resident Aidan Slovinski thinks he's found his amidst the new coronavirus chaos. As the fear of catching the disease chases both young and old indoors and onto the internet, Slovinski has a plan to use videoconferencing as the means to create a platform for a series of intergenerational TEDx-style lectures.

It's an ambitious project. And Slovinski is 16-years-old.

"The way I see it is, there'll be one member who will present on a topic that they know and care about for say 15 to 30 minutes," Slovinski said. "And then the other members afterwards will ask questions, and then there'll be a discussion period of about the same time."

Slovinski calls his new online community Bridging the Minds. He says he got the idea when visiting his grandfather in Alberta, Canada, a town he says makes a real effort to grow its sense of community.

"I'm walking to the library, and there's this senior/youth chess club, and I see my grandfather playing this seven-year-old, and he's having a great time," Slovinski said. "It just seemed like there was a lot of human connection, just a sense of community, that just really amazed me."

When he returned home, Slovinski says he tried to get an intergenerational bridge club started, but that never made it off the ground. He says the formation of a new TEDx Club at his school, Regis High School in New York City, gave him the inspiration for the project in its current form.

"The idea of a member presenting to everyone else on a different topic every week really struck me," he said. "Especially because teenagers and senior citizens have a lot to offer each other and they have different life experiences and different sets of expertise. I thought this would be a great idea, because it would allow both generations to learn from each other, and also allow for human connection."

The aspect of Ted Talks that Slovinski doesn't like is the lack of any question-and-answer period following the presentations. His new online community, which will be interacting through Zoom videoconferencing software, will have a format allowing for a "more human connection and an overall greater sense of community."

COVID-19 may have prompted Slovinski to pull the trigger on his generation-bridging endeavor, but it was pandemic loneliness that chambered the round. The main reason why Calgary expends such effort connecting his grandpa with a grammar schooler, according to Slovinski's research, is that the city recognized there is a "huge risk both to the elderly, and society at large, due to loneliness."

Calgary's not wrong. According to The National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation, loneliness and social isolation can be as damaging to health as smoking 15 cigarettes a day.

Now, this is not a cattle call for every Uncle Morrie and Cousin Billy who's looking for a new pandemic pastime, Slovinski says. The teen intends to "curate" the community, to ensure it is a "safe place for people, so that they don't feel overly exposed." If you want to join, send him an email at aidanslovinski@gmail.com.

Millennials, of course, know nothing, and are lazy. "Boomers" think they know everything, and then proceed to explain it all to you, tediously, and unasked. Those are a few of the Twitter-fueled stereotypes that Slovinski hopes Bridging the Minds will dispel:

"The way I'm going to market this, is as an opportunity, not only to join a club and gain something from it and learn interesting things and become more a part of your community, but as an opportunity to help your neighbor, to be there for each other."