H.E.R.O. Program educates students, engages residents

“You’re coming back Wednesday, right?”

At the end of Sunday night’s H.E.R.O. Program, it was evident that Regent Park and Carriage House residents have come to expect — and enjoy — their high school visitors three nights a week.

H.E.R.O. is an FBLA community service project implemented by Holyoke High School seniors Lali Marquez and Caleb Deaver and sophomore Lauren Herman. It’s the successor to the Adopt-A-Grandparent project Marquez completed last year.

This year, the students aim to do more than simply visit the nursing home. They’ve also studied the impact that isolation can have on residents; for some, it’s depression. Part of the group’s goal is to educate volunteers, which is where “H.E.R.O.” comes from. Volunteers are there to:

— Honor those that they’re helping.

— Educate themselves on depression that can be faced when isolated.

— Respect all members of the community.

— Oblige the residents’ wishes when participating in the activities.

Through it all, they aim to remember the motto, “You don’t have to save the world to be a hero because helping one person can make you their hero.”

On Sunday, two games were played at Regent Park. In the first, an object was placed in a pillowcase. Residents had to rely on their sense of touch, without looking, to guess what the objects were. In the other game, they raced to wind a string, weighed down by a water bottle, around a pencil.

When H.E.R.O. started in November, volunteers and participants mostly played familiar tabletop games, such as dominos. They then moved on to trivia and get-to-know-you games.  Now the focus is on games that get them moving.

The activities are really only a part of the program, though. At its heart, it’s about spending time together, and it’s clear by the banter that both sides enjoy the experience.

“Did you peek?”

“I told you she cheats!”

“She’s feisty!”

“It’s because you’re watching too much Jeopardy!”

To an outside observer, it truly does come across as a gathering of friends rather than simply being a community service project.

H.E.R.O. is expected to run through mid-February. Every member of the HHS FBLA chapter has signed up to volunteer at some point, and students outside the chapter are helping too. Something the project leaders were hoping to achieve was schoolwide participation rather than strictly within the FBLA chapter.

In addition to visiting the nursing home three nights a week, a H.E.R.O. representative visits patients staying in the hospital once or twice a week. That portion of the community service project is new this year, and Marquez noted that patients and their significant others really seem to appreciate the option to have a visitor from the program.

Community members who would like to learn more about H.E.R.O. can contact Marquez at marquezci@hcosd.org or Herman at hermanla@hcosd.org.