Neighbor News
Ventura County Grade Schoolers Deliver Cards to Seniors
University Village Thousand Oaks senior living community residents receive letters from Westlake Elementary School students.
A group of Ventura County third graders have a new outlook on being an older adult. The newfound respect comes after one of their peers, eight-year-old Miles Kudlacek, shared a class project for the 100th school day.
Miles’ presentation to his classmates at Westlake Elementary School highlighted the meaning behind the word centenarian. The students learned that only an estimated .03% of Americans achieve this age or higher. His interest in the subject came from an interview his 97-year-old great-grandfather Chuck Ullman did with The Wall Street Journal.
“My great-grandfather was in the newspaper for being close to 100 years old,” Miles said during an interview. “I had an idea to make cards for the people here, and I asked my teacher, and she said it would be perfect for the 100th day of school.”
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Miles, with the support of his peers, embarked on a heartwarming mission to write letters to the seniors at University Village Thousand Oaks, the senior living community where his great-grandfather resides. The community was thrilled to join forces on this intergenerational project, recognizing the immense health benefits it could bring, such as an increased sense of purpose and lifelong learning for both seniors and grade schoolers.
The students went to work drawing pictures and writing their “thanks” to the seniors. Miles then compiled the cards, dropped them off at the community, and met with the residents.
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Miles’ mother, Jessica Kudlacek, helped with the project. She says there’s a lot of information that all of us, including the younger generation, can learn from the seniors. “Miles and I created a lesson for the class, a presentation activity,” she said. “There is a disconnect, and creating opportunities to bridge that is important, and that is what we tried to do in this project.”
Jean Kornbluth is one of the University Village residents who received a letter. In the process, she advised Miles: “To live a good life, you have to treat people like you would like to be treated,” she said. “I think that’s very important.”
