Mayfield High School’s PRIDE Club recently hosted a Senior Sampler for the senior citizens of the Mayfield community.

On Oct. 20, senior citizens were given the opportunity to see what’s happening inside the school. Because most of seniors don’t have grandchildren at the high school, this sampler was a chance for them to see the day to day life of a student.

Kim Scarfo, an adviser for the club, said before the event, “Last year the seniors citizens got to tour the Innovation Center and this year they’re going to visit classrooms and see teaching in action with students working.”

With the help of PRIDE Club members, the senior citizens were escorted around the school to classes from math to art, really anywhere teachers offered up their class. This allowed the seniors to discover how the lives of high school students have changed from their high school days.

Co-president Shqiponja Selgjekaj said, “The Senior Sampler is a mingling type of event where they talk to each other and have lunch and coffee.”

In past years, the Senior Sampler only had a little over 30 people attend, so this year PRIDE hoped to increase the numbers by publicizing the event even more.  Scarfo said before the event, “We’re going to send a flyer to everyone in homeroom about a week before and ask you guys to deliver it to an elderly neighbor.”

Anastasia Selkirk, co-president of PRIDE, said, “In the past we have [made] bookmarks for the seniors and we are planning on doing that this year.”

Laurie Uhlir, Community Relations director for the school district, helped by sending emails and invitations to the seniors, while PRIDE members put flyers up in the Wildcat Sport and Fitness and the senior centers around the area.

During the planning process club members brainstormed ideas they believed would work and then advisers Scarfo and Michael Reinhard made sure it happened.

Some of those ideas included serving a lunch for the seniors and having Principal Jeffrey Legan speak to them.

Shelkheja also talked about the planning process. She said, “We all have different jobs; some people do placemats for when we have lunch and other people make gift bags.”

PRIDE members came up with their ideas during their weekly Tuesday meetings. During these meetings Reinhard said, “We discuss putting up flyers together around the school for students to tell their grandparents.”

Selkirk said, “At the meetings, we give out jobs to members and figure out who is running what along with taking notes.” The notes consist of helping with the ideas in producing a successful Senior Sampler.

PRIDE believes that the Senior Sampler impacts not only the community but the school as well. For the senior citizens it’s a way for them to relive their high school days and for the students, it allows them to see people who make up a big part of the community.

Scarfo said, “I think it’s a really important thing that we have that liaison between our senior citizens and our students.”

Accepting diversity is PRIDE club’s main goal and by having senior citizens in a building full of twenty first century teenagers, PRIDE feels they accomplished just that.