Segue From A Career To Volunteerism

Anne Gressle moved into the Oak Park Arms retirement community in 2019. Right away she began volunteering at Kindness Creators Intergenerational Preschool which is housed in the Oak Park Arms, 408 S. Oak Park Ave., Oak Park.

Three days a week she helps with all sorts of kid-friendly projects. Her motivation is the children. It’s the perfect volunteer job, because she is a retired pre-school teacher.

Kindness Creators Intergenerational Preschool is a private, Intergenerational Program that offers a unique opportunity for younger and older generations to interact and build meaningful relationships through a balance of free play, exercise, social learning, and academics.

“I love hanging out with kids,” Mrs. Gressle said. “In these troubling times it helps me get out of my head.”

At 6 p.m. Wednesday, June 8, the four- and five-year-olds “graduated” from Kindness Creators and will begin Kindergarten in the fall. Mrs. Gressle was at graduation greeting families and taking pride in the children.

As a child, she was shy and introverted. She was encouraged to be a teacher, as most girls were decades ago. She attended a teacher’s college in Maryland and taught little ones for many years.

Seniors report they don’t think about their age when in the company of young children. The youngsters bring a sense of vitality and fun, and the focus shifts to living in the moment. This volunteerism also satisfies a drive to give to others in a meaningful way.

The famous anthropologist Margaret Mead said, "Somehow we have to get older people back close to growing children if we are to restore a sense of community, a knowledge of the past, and a sense of the future."

For more information about the Oak Park Arms, call 708-386-4040 or visit https://www.oakparkarms.com. For more information about Kindness Creators visit: https://kindnesscreators.org/.