MISSION VIEJO : Students Volunteer at Senior Center

Until this month, seventh-grade student Adrianne Gomez had no idea that many senior citizens in her community were homebound and unable to do such basic tasks as prepare a meal or buy groceries.

But through “Kids and Seniors Together,” a program linking Newhart Middle School with the Mission Viejo Senior Center, Adrianne and her classmates have learned a great deal about their older neighbors. At the same time, they are earning points toward a community service class project.

It was only recently that Adrianne and fellow students in Laura Thompson’s seventh-grade social studies classes began volunteering at the city-run senior center. They also help Meals on Wheels program coordinator Sharon McNair, and center volunteers prepare and load meals to be delivered to homebound seniors.

“It’s been lots of fun because you get to meet new people and help them out,” Adrianne said.

One recent morning, it was 12-year-old Jolene Salvesen’s turn to walk down the block to the senior center and help load stacks of wrapped sandwiches and frozen dinner platters into insulated traveling containers. “We’re trying to do lots of services this year,” Jolene said. “I like helping people.”

After student volunteers wrap the food, senior volunteers deliver the hot and cold meals daily to about 50 elderly homebound residents in Mission Viejo and parts of Lake Forest. Those receiving the meals are asked to donate up to $2.75 per day, although no one is denied service if they are unable to pay.

So far there have been no shortage of volunteers to help the seniors, Thompson said. “The middle school students like hands-on activities, and they like to help people when they have a chance,” the teacher said. “It’s real-life experience. It’s awareness of other people and what’s going on in their community.”

In addition to Thompson’s project, English teacher Donna Dean has started a senior citizen “buddies” program in her classes. Recently, the students visited seniors at the center and interviewed them about such things as their favorite movies and how they used to get to school. For the rest of the school year, the students will keep in touch with their “buddies” through letters and other projects.

Together, the two teachers figure that they have about 150 middle school youngsters involved in the Kids and Seniors Together Program, which was launched more than two years ago at Newhart Elementary School.

The new involvement from the middle school has been as big a hit with the seniors as it has been for the students, said Nancy Herrmann, recreation director for the Mission Viejo Community and Senior Center.

At least one senior already has taken to volunteering at the school, where he reads to students in the library. Many seniors recently joined students in the Mission Viejo Walk Against Drugs.

“Most of the seniors at this center are mobile, active people,” Herrmann said. “These folks now have the time to . . . volunteer. They’re in good health; they want to give and help.”