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Intergenerational Opportunities Build Lifetime Memories

On Friday, October 8th classes quite rightly came to a grinding halt for Lakeview's Grandparents and Special Friends Day. This time-honored tradition, a day filled with music, performance, and special memories, was canceled last year due to Covid-19, but oh how we made up for it this year. The program was magnificent! For Lakeview great-grandparent Peggy Walters it was her 32nd Grandparent's Day. For me, it was my first. Grandparents and great-grandparents are as special to children as children are to them. So many wonderful memories are made when the young and old (or should I say the young and seasoned) get together. In my opening remarks in the WAC I shared memories of me as a child driving around a roundabout in London with my grandfather behind the wheel being sandwiched between two London red double decker buses, wondering how I would ever come out unscathed. My grandad was in the front, grinning, smoking a pipe, humming “O Come all ye faithful” to himself. I can also remember leaving my own children at the equivalent of a Fall Festival with my mother, their grandmother, thinking what could go wrong. Two hours later…
… the two of them returned giggling. She’d allowed my then ten-year old son Conor to dye his hair red because, as she said, “I’m grandma.”  
 
Intergenerational fun at Lakeview is not limited to Grandparents and Special Friends Day. We also have traditions such as Fall Festival. While we weren't so lucky with the weather at Fall Festival this year, it still provided endless opportunities for parents, grandparents, and alums to watch the youngest (and oldest) Lakeview students run around, throw things, pop things, eat things, catch things, and visit an assortment of booths. Accompanying me in the "Fortune-telling" tent were several Lower School students, who discovered that art and athletics are in their future. Fortune teller Emilia Horton (10th grade) could also look into the past, and confidently pronounced that she knew I'd been in Chicago in my formative years. How did she know that? The Lower School students were amazed! As an aside, I am sure I was not alone in my disappointment that parents and grandparents were not allowed on the bouncy castle and inflatable obstacle course (must have been an oversight - will have to check in with the Head of School on that one). Huge thanks goes to Cindi Alexander, the LPA, and everyone who made this wonderful tradition possible. 
 
Finally, one new intergenerational opportunity started this year and is becoming a Wednesday morning tradition —Lakeview Samba. This Afro-Brazilian percussion group is open to everyone in the Lakeview community — parents, students from all divisions, staff, faculty, Board members, and grandparents. No musical experience is necessary, just a willingness to get up early and play a percussion instrument in a group with people of all ages and backgrounds. Where else can you see a second grader, a member of Lakeview facilities staff, a senior, and a Trustee all standing side-by-side banging tamborims and bells, and making music? Lakeview has so many ways to celebrate and honor its multiple generations. There's no telling what will happen when the young and old get together.
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Lakeview Academy is a private, coeducational day school for students in preschool through 12th grade, located in Gainesville, GA minutes off I-985/Hwy 365.
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