Mar 15, 2011 3 min read

Several Laurel Highlands High School seniors recently visited Mt. Macrina Manor, where they held a Winter Olympics 2011 for residents there, for a special project.

The objective for the special event was to give senior high students a unique and innovative opportunity to visit with senior citizens, work alongside and learn from staff, and consider a career working in health care, as well as engage the residents of the skilled nursing facility in a fun, stimulating sports game day in the middle of a cold and dreary Pennsylvania winter.

A wide variety of sports challenges and games involving the full range of diverse skills and physical challenges were offered by the senior students, Cheyenne Bradley, Aaron Fitzgerald, Ernie Fowler, Laura Keefer, Golden Martz and Felicia Yauger.

The students offered the following quotes on their experience:

“The experience of working with Mt. Macrina will help me in my future career. This experience has taught me that motivation is extremely important. I also enjoyed seeing and talking to the elderly people, and delighted in seeing their faces “light up.” It made me so happy to see them having a good time,” Yauger said.

“As for my own personal experience, I love the great service Mt. Macrina Manor provides for our community and the compassion they show our senior citizens. I am glad I was able to provide a stable and effective activity for the residents that was exciting and fun. I hope in the future you can continue our new found Winter Olympics for all to enjoy,” Martz said.

“In the small time I was helping at Mt. Macrina, I have learned better hands on skills and also I have started to work with others more and better than before. I also enjoyed all the new people I was working with at the 2011 Winter Olympics. It was fun working there and I do miss it and I would love to go back,” Fitzgerald said.

“In the months of January and February, I enjoyed organizing the Winter Olympics with the other community service students. I enjoyed decorating and getting to know the elderly people and watching them play the sports. If I had the opportunity to go back to Mt. Macrina, I would,” Bradley said.

“My experience in participating in community service at Mt. Macrina was a rewarding one. I enjoyed talking with and sitting with the residents. I loved seeing how happy they were to be around us and play the games. I plan on going up to Mt. Macrina to visit some of the residents I met,” Keefer said.

“I liked how very nice the Mt. Macrina Manor staff were to work with, and how clean the Manor was. I also liked how all of the older people were nice and hyped up,” Fowler said.