It is always a delight to witness generations coming together and sharing time of fellowship, learning and stories. One such opportunity to see this happening took place at St. Peter’s Catholic Primary school in Plymouth, where their pupil chaplain team who have been working on the Caritas Intergenerational Project, came together with members of the Salvation Army for an art workshop at their school. Local artist Andrea McCarthy came to offer her expertise and teach each person how to make and use a lino print. We explored the theme of sustainability and recycling, and it was lovely to see the interplay of 5 generational era’s sharing stories of what this looked like in their childhood. We listened to stories of items being delivered and picked up by horse and cart and the benefits of collecting horse droppings for the garden.
The games that were played and pennies given as incentives to recycle your household waste to save them from landfill and the children enthusiastically shared who their hand me down clothes went to or who they were given items from. All were given the chance to illustrate their own examples of ways to look after our world by making a lino print block and printing from it to make not only paper copies to take home, but also a textiles version. This has stayed with Andrea and will be made into a wonderful art piece for the Caritas Laudato Si, celebration exhibition to take place in the Cathedral at the end of May.
All parties have said how much they enjoyed being together, they have expressed the joy that has spilled over into their lives from coming together and they are all vey much looking forward to the next time that they can visit each other again.
We said a special Thank you to Debra Balfour their teacher and RE lead for the school. She has been awarded our Caritas in Action Award for her outstanding commitment and contribution to making a difference to the community through the Intergenerational project and outreach to the local parish and community groups.
We look forward to hearing more about what this lively group get up to next.
If you would like to know more about the intergenerational project them please contact Caritas@prcdtr.org.uk