NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — They call it the “Senior Prom” and the guests really are all seniors.
New Haven’s Mary Wade Home hosts the festivities every year for its residents. After all, it’s a day when lots of people will get dressed up and go dancing. Why should it be any different for folks in assisted living?
“It’s the day of love. It’s Valentine’s Day,” Mary Wade’s chief operating officer Kristin Butler said. “We’re bringing our residents together to enjoy, get dressed up.”
This is the fifth year the United Way has brought volunteers to Mary Wade on Valentine’s Day.
“In talking to the residents last year, they specifically said they want more mingling, we want more dancing and we want more music,” said Dennis Velasquez, the volunteer coordinator of the United Way of Greater New Haven.
So this year they added a fashion show as well. Residents got to show off their best outfits, many walking the red carpet accompanied by students from the University of New Haven.
“I’d like to do it again,” Mary Wade resident Margaret Lostritto said. “I hope it happens again sometime in my life. That’s my first walkdown.”
“They have been so excited all morning long,” said Casey Chmura, owner of Casey Classic Cuts, who volunteered to do the hair for the models. “All they keep talking about is when do we get to walk the runway? Is there going to be music?”
As nice as it is for the residents to get to mingle with university students, those students also get a lot out of the experience as well.
“It felt really great to give them a little bit of love and joy on a day that can sometimes be difficult, but I think it was really a meaningful experience,” University of New Haven student Gabriella Guarniere said.
“During these times when things might be difficult, people might feel so isolated or so separated from one another, I just want to come and provide them such positivity and such light,” another UNH student, Jessmarie Delgado Lopez, said.
The age groups found out they have a lot in common.
“I would never have had the chance to meet a nice young man,” Lostritto said about the student accompanying her. “We’re at different times, but we talked and I think we’ve got the same idea about life – to serve others.”
To serve others and let everyone know they are loved on this Valentine’s Day.
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