Ethan and Bruce attend their first Chicago Cubs game!
Last week, Ethan and I went to our first ever Cubs game at Wrigley Field.
For those of you who don’t know, Ethan is the one-year old son of Kara and Brandon.They met when Kara was a Resident Assistant (RA) at Pat Crowley House (PCH) and Brandon was the cook at Nathalie Salmon House (NSH). Now they live in one of our family apartments at NSH. Brandon has since gone back to college and Kara is the administrative assistant and outreach liaison at NSH. Brandon has described Ethan as a "H.O.M.E. baby" and he is dearly loved by the residents at NSH.
OK, so Ethan has an excuse for this being his first game, he is only one-year old. But what about me, Bruce Otto, 67 years old, moved to Chicago in 1978 and lived for 10 years on Waveland Avenue, four blocks west of Wrigley Field.
The truth is, I am not a sports fan. I don’t watch baseball games or any sports in person or on TV. At our weekly staff brown bag lunch when the topic turns to sports, as it does every single week, my eyes glaze over and I feel like a complete idiot.
So, why did I cave in and go to this game? I did it because I would be there with some of our residents and staff from PCH and NSH. We provide intergenerational housing—a place where seniors, families with young children and college age young people live in community--and this was clearly an intergenerational activity. These types of outings are very important socialization times and I don’t like to miss them.
H.O.M.E. takes our residents on outings frequently. They recently took trips to the Bahai Temple in Wilmette, Chicago History Museum, Target, Museum of Science and Industry. Other times, especially around the holidays, we have volunteer groups who come to us and sponsor parties. They not only provide the food and entertainment but spend time socializing with the residents.
Sometimes the volunteer groups are large, like the Ginghamsburg Church from Ohio who sponsor a Holiday Party ever year. Other times we have a family volunteer as Guests Chefs and prepare a meal for the 8 to 10 residents at Good Life Senior Residences. In all cases we encourage the volunteers to hang around after the meal to talk with our residents.
There are many ways for you, your family, or a group of your friends can volunteer at H.O.M.E. and also get to know some of our residents. I hope you'll join us!
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