WESTMINSTER : Old, Young Get a Boot From SHUE

At 72, retired teacher Don Shaw hasn’t gone to school in a long time. He still keeps busy teaching, though, because now the students come to him.

“It feels tremendous” to work with children again, Shaw said on a recent afternoon at the Senior Center, where he was surrounded by his young charges. “It’s a very warm feeling that you get.”

Shaw is one of eight seniors who watch after two dozen children from Midway City and Anderson Elementary schools as part of a new program aimed at getting seniors involved in the community and keeping children away from gangs and drugs.

The underlying message of the program to seniors is “that you are worthy, worthwhile and that we need you and what you can give,” said Betty Goyne, supervisor of senior services.

Each day, from about 2 to 6 p.m., the children flock to the Westminster Senior Center to hear stories, get help with homework and play games supervised almost entirely by seniors.

There are 13 seniors now working for the program, with a handful of other people, including students from a local high school, who also volunteer their time, she said.

Project SHUE, which stands for Safety, Health, Understanding and Education, is now in its third week. Although it is ostensibly a city program aimed at improving seniors’ self-esteem by allowing them to provide a needed community service, the benefits for the children are equally important, program coordinators said.

The program targets children ages 6 through 9 who live in the 15th Street neighborhood near the civic center, an area where a local gang known as the Orphans often recruits children their age to sell drugs and become “Baby Orphans,” director Judy Bruland said.

“We’re trying to keep them out of that during the day. If they’re out by the 15th Street environment, they could be caught in a gang cross-fire,” Bruland said.

On a recent afternoon, the children split into three groups, which rotated through activities including singing, doing math and writing homework, listening to stories and making construction paper chains. Many of the children said they liked the program because it offered something fun to do after school.

“I like it here because they can help with my homework, and at home my mom is too busy,” said 9-year-old Lilia Gomez. She said she also likes the chance to get away from gang members in her neighborhood and make new friends. Although Lilia said she sometimes gets bored at home after school, that doesn’t happen at the senior center.

A corporate grant now funds the $40,000 annual cost of the program, although coordinators will have to raise at least half of that amount in future years to keep it running, Goyne said.

“I think it’s a really needed program and children are going to benefit from it, (and) by being with young people, you stay young. I always felt that way,” said Milena Helen Ekovich, 70. “Just being with them and sharing stories and their play time, just being a surrogate grandmother--you feel good to do it.”

Andrea Leyner, 65, agrees that the children provide the best rewards when they say, “ ‘I like to be with you, teacher.’ It touches your heart when they say it.”