Editorial

Senior Housing At Boys & Girls Club Links Generations

Very often the fate of a society lies in the way it treats both its history and its future. Last Wednesday giant strides were made in bringing together these different elements that underscores the regard in which they are held when a coalition of local and federal banks and city, state and federal officials broke ground on a 98-unit senior living facility on a corner of the yard of the Variety Boys and Girls Club of Queens.

The residence will house low- and very low-income seniors and will augment the club’s efforts to foster relationships between the generations. Variety Board President Tom Nowierski noted that that intergenerational relations are already well underway at the club. "Presently, seniors help the children read in the library, serve as monitors in the pool area and teach chess. In turn, the children help make the seniors laugh, stay involved with life and feel needed." Congressmember Carolyn Maloney, who was instrumental in securing funding for the project summarized the purpose and benefits of the project in one sentence: "Young people from the Boys and Girls Club will be keeping residents company for years to come and will learn from the perspective of their elders at the same time."

The senior housing at the club’s doorstep will provide club members--youngsters ages six through 17--with a boon almost beyond price. Listening to their elders describe their lives and times will give them an appreciation of the history of the society in which they live in a way that no textbook ever could. And it is only by knowing and appreciating our history—our human story and the events and people that shaped our world—that we can make any kind of plan for the future. Knowledge of the past enables us to take charge of the future, rather than sit by helplessly at the mercy of forces that we have lost the opportunity to control.

The generational interaction serves both parties. Senior citizens who feel they have a purpose in life, be it teaching reading, coaching a budding chess player or giving a cooking demonstration, are likely to live longer, maintain greater independence and have fewer health problems. They are more likely to remain contributing members of society, a development which most seniors welcome.

The senior residence on the Variety Boys and Girls Club property, due to be completed some 18 months from now, is more than a housing facility. It is a powerhouse fueled by the accumulated wisdom of the people who will live there. The Variety Boys and Girls Club, in turn, assimilates that power and passes it on to the youths who are its members. The wisdom handed down to the youngsters today will constitute a large part of the knowledge they will need when they in turn find themselves responsible for managing their world. Maloney, Nowierski, the Variety Boys and Girls Club Board of Directors, Astoria Federal Savings, the Federal Home Loan Bank of New York and the New York State Division of Housing and Community Resources have come together to fund a legacy and a gift to this community that will more than pay for itself, the value of which is immeasurable.