Four area residents will be honored by Perhams Prairie Wind Middle School fifth graders in an Elders Wisdom, Childrens Song concert on Thursday, Feb. 16 at 7:00 p.m. at the Perham High School Auditorium. The event is free and open to the public.
The honored elders: Blanca Mendez, Palmer Pederson, Carl Seifert, and Delores Wasche represent the many facets of our diverse community. Each of the Elders has spent time sharing their stories with the fifth grade students. Larry Long, known as Americas Troubadour, has been helping the students since early February to choose themes to represent the Elders lives, and to create music for each of them.
Those songs (and a few special surprises) will be presented at the concert.
The demand for Larry Longs work to celebrate American stories and the unsung heroes among us sparked the creation of the non-profit Community Celebration of Place. The organization works with communities to use music, performance, art and oral history to bring together children and elders, and people of different backgrounds economic, faith, racial, and cultural to honor and celebrate our commonalities and differences through the Elders Wisdom, Childrens Song program.
Long says, When senior members of a community go into schools and talk about their lives, and children write songs about what they have learned, they create together a remarkable celebration of humanity and hard work. This process, called Elders' Wisdom, Children's Song, honors community members of different economic, racial, and cultural backgrounds while celebrating what we hold in common.
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Long has worked in hundreds of schools and communities throughout the United States and the world. Long and PWMS fifth graders came together with four real women elders in 2004 for a similar project. At that time Prairie Wind Middle School principal Kitty Krueger said, Too often we as middle school age students do not appreciate the wealth of information and history that our elder generation have to offer and the enthusiasm and energy that our young people have in receiving it. This is a wonderful opportunity to make a mark that pays dividends for both ends of the spectrum; young and old.
According to Long an elder is a person who has earned that title of respect. You know who they are. They enjoy children and young people and theyve given their lives, through good times and bad, to many generationspast, present, and future. This may be a parent, a guardian, your next-door neighbor, a coach, a teacher. It may be a child or young person who you feel is a wise person.
