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SARATOGA SPRINGS — Service, kindness and friendship are being offered between a retirement community and a middle school, but it's not in the way you might think.
Residents of Legacy Farms Villas, a 55+ community in Saratoga Springs, have chosen to serve the students at Vista Heights Middle School by making blankets, providing supplies and spending time with the students.
Shirley Taylor, the head of Legacy Farms' humanitarian group, said the group of 30-40 residents likes to do service projects every month. In February, they chose to help Vista Heights Middle School because one of the Villas residents is a parent to Vista Heights registrar Kristy Tyson.
Taylor said what first started as collecting supplies and money to give weekend meal kits to needy students at the school turned into using leftover funds to provide free breakfast and lunch for students, and it just kept going from there.
"We just kind of adopted that school, and we have been partnered with them to do some really fun things," Taylor said.
Tyson said the group put together over 100 weekend kits, appalled by the great need the students had, and therefore chose to keep working with the school.
"I told my husband, 'That's a community I want to move into, the community I want to be part of — a community that looks to celebrate teenagers and is still looking for the good and looking out for their own community,'" Tyson said.
Members of the Legacy Farms community even came to Vista Heights' picture day to volunteer by handing out T-shirts and helping organize the event. Tyson said the older adults came about 7:30 a.m. and stayed until about 4 p.m. for two days.
Tyson said the older adults told Vista Heights faculty the students were polite and kind, and that they felt connected to the teenagers.
Students have had the opportunity to write thank you notes to the volunteers for the weekend kits that were put together in new backpacks for the students.
One of the notes said, "When I (came) to (the) United States, I feel by myself scared. I am very grateful for all your help and for being so helpful to me, I really appreciate what you did for me, and thank you very much for this opportunity to come to school."
As a big thank you, the school put together a thank you luncheon held at the Villas and interacted with residents by performing drama scenes, dancing and sharing merchandise from the school spirit store.
"You hear all these negative things about the kids, the 'youth of today' and stuff. ... (This) has made the people in our community feel needed, and yet on the other hand, the kids are reaping the rewards of this and they want to give back to us, so it's a win-win," Taylor said.
Legacy Farms Villas' humanitarian group is putting together Christmas gifts for families of Vista Heights students in need. Taylor said after talking to local restaurants, the group is coming away with 28 meals from Arby's, three family certificates from FAT Cats good for bowling, pizza and drinks, and promises from Crumble, Noodles & Company and Taco Bell.
To donate to Legacy Farms Villas' efforts, they can be contacted at the information on this website.
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