Seniors across the St. Louis area settle into their comfy chairs at various Arrow Senior Living facilities, crack open a book and hit record. They’re filming story times for the children of St. Louis public schools and beyond, but they’re not stopping at reading books – they’re donating them, too, in an effort to promote childhood literacy in underserved communities.
The books are purchased from EyeSeeMe, an African-American Children’s bookstore in University City, and the senior living organization works to donate to the bookstore’s foundation, as well.
Kayla Barlow, the vice president of residential services for Arrow Senior Living, details to the that the organization was looking for a way to celebrate and show up for Black History Month. Combined with a mutual love for the intergenerational programs the facility offers and her four-year-old daughter’s joy when she listens to books being read to her on YouTube, Arrow’s Story Corner was born.
Arrow Senior Living has facilities in University City, St. Charles, Wentzville and across Missouri, in addition to some communities out of state. The book donations provide an excursion for the senior residents to get out in the community while still remaining conscious of COVID-19. Many of the books are by Black authors and are about Black people, with an emphasis on stories about real people.
Once the residents get their ten books from EyeSeeMe, they can go drop off the books at one of the local public schools so classrooms will have new additions to their libraries. Each book is decorated with a sticker that shows where the book was donated from, in addition to a QR code where students can listen to a resident reading the book.
“It’s a way to empower the residents to give back, a way to make them feel like they’re doing something good and great,” Barlow says. “And it feels good as a resident services director too, to have that partnership. And it’s just a fun way to still be able to have our intergenerational relationships even through COVID.”
Not only does Barlow consider it a way to empower the residents but also a learning opportunity; the vice president says residents, some who lived through the Civil Rights Movement, tell Barlow that when they were younger, they overlooked the movement and thought it wasn’t a big deal, but when reading these books realized the weight of the movement.
Barlow recounts one resident getting teary-eyed, saying she should’ve done more when she was younger. The stories about children of the civil rights movement and leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela offer not only children a different perspective, but the seniors who are reading the books, too.
“I think it’s even reflecting on our seniors, like how it affects people even still today, like words mean things, actions mean things, too,” Barlow says. “I think having like them reading these stories and understanding the push behind, I think it just really speaks to what we’re really trying to do is bring the communities together. So it’s interesting to see some of their reactions.”
Along with the story times, Arrow Senior Living makes it a point to give back to the bookstore they are purchasing from. The books are paid for by donations from the community and they also make it a goal to raise enough money for a donation to the EyeSeeMe Foundation. The foundation works to improve child literacy in underserved communities and “promote African American History and multicultural literature that will increase respect and tolerance for diverse cultures,” according to EyeSeeMe’s website. That mission aligns with what Arrow Senior Living wanted to do with their celebration, Barlow explains, and giving back to a local bookstore was a huge plus, as well.
Barlow says 290 books were purchased from EyeSeeMe this year and 29 schools have benefited from the program. Last year, when the program was in its first year, Arrow purchased books for 25 schools and was able to donate $4,500. So far this year, Arrow has exceeded their goal of $6,500 and has raised over eight thousand dollars. The organization hopes to continue to celebrate Black History Month this way for years to come.
“The Arrow team just really kind of blew up this little bitty idea into this grand thing that now we get to impact like 29 different schools in each of our communities,” Barlow adds. “We have communities from Indiana to Iowa to Ohio to here in Missouri. So it really is not just a single single community profiting from this.”