These two kids run the party in Nicolaysen’s empty storefront window.
May 29, 2009
by Christine Yeres
A little more than a year ago, My Second Home, the day care center for the elderly that shares handsome digs at Radio Circle with the tiny attendees of Mt. Kisco Child Care Center, received a grant from an anonymous donor to undertake an “Art Enhancement Program.” The funds permitted My Second Home to hire an artist to design an art project that the elders and the preschoolers could do together.
From the project, ten crazy-coated party animals and a pair of happy children were created out of chicken wire, exotic yarns and much human contact. The twelve figures – including a piano-playing pig and a cat that will never catch the bird he’s leaping for – are partying in downtown Chappaqua in the window of Erik Nicolaysen’s shop front on South Greeley Avenue, next to Pete’s EZ Sports and across from Citibank. The first floor space has been for rent since January.
The “Joining Elders with Early Learners,” or JEWEL, program is run by Family Services of Westchester. It was designed to bring the very old and the very young into natural, happy contact with one another, to the psychic benefit of both. Reminiscent of earlier times when grandparents lived with the next couple of generations rather than being sequestered with other elderly, JEWEL may turn out to be the bright future of eldercare.
Cost effective, too
In an economy that is forcing Americans to look at the runaway rate of increase in health care costs, explained Rina Bellamy, director of My Second Home, “our program permits families who take elderly parents to live with them to have relief from caretaker duties during the day. A home health care worker can cost between $16 and $20 per hour. Here at My Second Home, the elderly socialize with one another as well as with the children, they receive wonderful lunches, work on crafts, hear music – and all for about $72 a day, plus $20 for transportation to and from My Second Home.”
Spanish artist dreams up yarn animals
The artist behind the yarn creatures, Josephine Monter, of Garrison, N.Y., came into contact with the JEWEL program through her friend, Jonathan Crock, a professional storyteller, for whom she had created props, puppets and masks. Monter, originally from Spain, described the intriguing call she got from My Second Home. “They knew that I did art and craft also. They said ‘We want something more important than craft, more like fine art. It must be for people who are 80 and children who are four.’”
“I was thinking and thinking,” Monter continued, “and I thought ‘I need to use material they know; everyone who is old knows how to crochet, children have used yarn to weave.’ So yarn it was. I provided the chicken wire base, which was the one material difficult to manipulate. When I cut the edges, I put a little tape so no one would damage themselves.” Monter was impressed by the intergenerational collaboration and delighted with the finished product.
Erik and Patty Nicolaysen cheerfully allowed the empty storefront below the Nicolaysen Insurance Agency to be transformed by these creatures on loan from My Second Home. Jane and Merry Holmes of Crown House Antiques at 297 King Street provided party furnishings for the scene.
More about My Second Home from our archives:
“Not your mother’s old-age home,” February 20, 2009
“Feed Mom Fresh on Mother’s Day,” May 8, 2009
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