MONTREAL -- A group of Montreal teenagers may have spent months away from school this year, but they also say the pandemic has taught them a lot they may not have learned otherwise.
Or maybe it was a group of women their grandmothers’ ages who taught it to them. The teens, a group of students from Selwyn House school, were asked to take on what, in March, was already clear would be a monumental task: helping fight loneliness in their community.
As COVID-19 sent Montreal into two long lockdowns, they were asked to keep in touch with a group of local seniors, often finding ways other than visiting in person.
The majority of the 50 seniors in the program are “single women,” said Benita Golden of Contactivity, the organization that arranged the program. “Women, for the most part, who've been widowed and [are] living on their own.”
While much of the alarm at the beginning of the pandemic was around seniors living in group residences, justifiably, many of those living at home were also heading into their own kind of crisis.
“As you know, at the beginning of the pandemic, we weren’t allowed any visitors, and people were totally isolated... so we wanted to put these programs into place quickly,” Golden said.
Nearly a year later, the women have high praise for their young friends, who haven’t let down their side of the bargain.
"I was so happy, lucky also, to be paired with him,” said Westmount resident Viviane Agia about her student, Matthew Homa.
“He calls me every week to ask about me, to chat with me. He helps me with my iphone, my computer,” she said.
But Homa, who is in Grade 11, said it took on a greater meaning to him, too.
“I’ve learned how important that connection can be, and how important the connection we make between people—particularly now more than ever—that really is.”
With the year going the way it has, the students have had to adjust and find new ways to keep their group’s spirits high. Heading into a holiday season that promises to be much tougher than usual, they threw themselves into a project that went beyond weekly chats—creating a virtual choir.
Everyone recorded their parts separately, including some Christmas classics, and then it came together in editing.
Some may be sick of video conferencing, but "it was a lot of fun,” said Agia.
“I look a little bit stressed in the video because I was trying not to make mistakes when I was singing. It's the first time I was doing that.”
Contactivity, which has been helping seniors for decades, said the video was such a hit they’re planning to do it again in 2021, and not far into the year—they have a Valentine’s Day video in mind.
Watch the video above to see the "choir" putting together their performance.
