https://reasonstobecheerful.world/the-civic-hour-volunteering/
"“Agh, I am only getting consonants,” sighs Nicole Riberolles, the 104-year-old
doyenne of Les Artistes nursing home in the Batignolles neighborhood of
northwestern Paris.
There’s a Q, R, Y, W, N and an E lined up on her Scrabble letter holder. She
sees nothing available, weaving her pearl necklace through her fingers in
frustration.
But within a few turns, the aging matriarch rallies and lays down the word
“EWE” — like in English, meaning a female sheep — on the board, a triple
point-winning combo that earns her dozens of points and nudges her up to second
place in the runnings.
“It’s good to work the brain,” she declares, brimming with pleasure at her fine
work.
All across the room similar scenes are unfolding: tables of competitors, or
perhaps more aptly, companions, are doing lively battle via various board
games. There are shrieks of excitement, playful accusations of cheating. If it
weren’t for the mass of walking sticks, strollers and wheelchairs, you could
hardly guess it is a care home.
The weekly board games meet-up received an injection of energy a few years ago
with the arrival of volunteer participants from the surrounding neighborhood.
They form part of an initiative in France that is reinventing volunteering for
the modern age, creating volunteers out of people who don’t think they have the
time, and catalyzing mutual support at a time of disintegrating community
ties."
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
