A group of BYU–Hawaii students spent a recent Saturday morning playing games with and getting to know residents of a local assistant living community. The event, organized by BYU–Hawaii Student Association (BYUHSA), brought a large group of students to the Ponds at Punaluu for a morning of bingo, a talent show and visiting. With more than 25 students showing up on a Saturday morning in the summer term, the activity was considered a success.
“It was a good turn out,” says Breanna Remington, BYUHSA’s junior vice president over service and learning. “It’s hard to know what to expect because with service projects you don’t really have a number beforehand.”
Remington, a social work major, has been running the service and learning committee for a majority of the summer while the senior VP is out of the country, she confesses that this is one of her first service leadership positions, and this activity was one of the bigger projects this summer. It is also the first time the service committee organized a visit to Ponds at Punaluu.
Ponds contacted Remington after they participated in a Stop and Serve project. Stop and Serve is a regular service event on campus where a station is set up in the Aloha Center for students and others passing through to have an opportunity to help with a small but meaningful service project. In May, the Stop and Serve project planted potted flowers and delivered them to Ponds. This is where they were first introduced to the assisted living community. Shortly after receiving the flowers, Remington and the service and learning committee were invited back to spend time with the residents. After some coordination and planning, the bingo and talent activity was put into motion.
All of the bingo props were provided by Ponds, including a few candied treats for the winners. They played two rounds of bingo and some blackout games as well. The talent portion of the activity was a mixture of prepared performances and impromptu acts, including numbers on the piano, guitar, and even a harmonica. Recent BYU–Hawaii graduate Philip Andrus’s Nat King Cole number was such a hit with the audience that they requested an encore.
“Now that they [Ponds] know who we are and how many people we can get, maybe we can do a cleaning project…or play another game with them” says Remington.