Scouts serve seniors a holiday feast
By Angela Greiner Contributing Writer

PHOTO/ANGELA GREINER (l to r) Girl Scouts Alison Schier and Jen Casavant along with Boy Scout Mathew Giombetti and Brownie Oksana McQuiggan serve dessert to Senior Center members Wilfred and Genevieve Freve during a holiday dinner Dec. 12.

Hudson - The aroma of garlic and simmering tomato sauce poured out of the Hudson Senior Center Dec. 12 as members of the retired community met to celebrate the holidays. The annual celebration was arranged this year by members of local Girl Scout and Boy Scout troops who prepared all of the food for the event, which was well attended despite weather conditions that caused some members to not venture out.

The menu included a full Italian feast followed by desserts. The seniors, including Senior Center member Genevieve Freve, were equally impressed by the time the youth took to prepare the food and the attentive nature with which the children waited on them.

"The children were absolutely wonderful," Freve said.

Following the meal, the Boy Scouts presented each of the more than 40 seniors with hand-decorated shell ornaments. The shells were decorated by Boy Scouts D.J. and Hunter Panneton and came from their personal collection retrieved from Cape Cod this past summer.

In the interest of conservation, the Boy Scouts spent nearly five hours prior to the event making individual gift boxes from recycled holiday cards. Assistant Scout Master Elsa Panneton said the project was initiated by the boys, who felt it would be nice to give the seniors a gift.

"This I think is fantastic," Freve said, holding up the ornament. "I am going to make it into a necklace."

Senior Center bilingual social service advocate Ana Terra-Salomao was pleased with the opportunity to involve Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts in the program.

"We want the community to be involved and interact with the seniors," Salomao said.

She explained that the center is always encouraging involvement from community groups and that often the experience is mutually beneficial.

Salomao saw this event as an opportunity for the seniors to get together and socialize, but to also interact with the younger generation. As a parent of one of the scouts, she said, the kids profited from the intergenerational socializing, as well as helping them earn a merit award.

The scouting leaders also hoped that through waiting on and interacting with the seniors, the boys and girls would raise their social consciousness and understanding of the older generation in town.

"I think they [the seniors] were pretty cool," Girl Scout troop 2755 member Allison Schier said after the dinner.

She explained that helping seniors celebrate the holidays is part of the scouting mission to help other people.

"I hope this gave them an opportunity to relax and not to stress and worry about having to prepare another meal during the holidays," Schier said.

She also expressed concern about seniors over the holidays.

"It can be a lonely time because families may live far away, and maybe people cannot always aff ord to visit relatives," Schier said.

The scouts considered the event a success.

"We all pitched in, and it was a nice community event giving seniors an opportunity to interact," Schier said.