People, Inc.

Today the 1/2 of the group that I was with went to a senior housing complex run by People, Inc. in Hamburg, NY (a little south of the city of Buffalo). We had coffee and muffins with some of the residents there who are independent but low-income seniors.

All the ladies we interacted with were fantastic. We met Alice, who is 94 and very spunky! Emma who loves traveling to Hawaii, Rose who loves to cook, Pattie who is Grace's new best friend and was very interested in talking to Grace about China. Pattie also has facebook and asked Grace to be her friend, which was awesome. And Florence and Elaine who are sisters.

I loved talking to Florence. She has visited every state in the U.S. expect for 3! (Washington, Oregon, and Alaska). Florence is also the oldest of 12 children and is now in her 80s. She grew up in Buffalo and remembered when my family had a lumber yard business on the Eastside. Florence used to be a hairdresser and thinks she may have done my great-grandmother's or great-aunt's hair. She and I also chatted about the Polish tradition of Dyngus Day. She was a lot of fun to talk to.

The ladies invited us to come back some Monday night when they have their game night. Experiencing the community that the seniors have with each other was great. I do love learning from conversations with senior citizens. Their lives are a living history and this was a great opportunity to relax, chat, and learn.

We then met up with the other 1/2 of our group and went to lunch at Romeo & Juliet's on Hertel Ave. Thanks to Vito and everyone there for a great meal!

This afternoon we came back to campus to prepare for tomorrow's activity with Junior Achievement (JA) at the Enterprise Charter School on Oak St. Enterprise in addition to housing Junior Achievement and working with their programs, enrolls students who were struggling in the traditional Buffalo Public Schools. Tomorrow we will be teaching lessons to 3-6 graders at that school. Alfonzo and I will be teaming up to work with a 4th grade class. More about JA tomorrow!