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Published: Friday, Dec. 28, 2012 / Updated: Friday, Dec. 28, 2012 02:58 PM

Students from Orchard Park meet with senior ‘Study Buddies’

Editor’s note: This is the first of an occasional series written by fifth grade students at Orchard Park Elementary School as they meet with “buddies” at Westminster Towers.

On Nov. 9, students from Kim Price and Elizabeth Eppes’ classes at Orchard Park Elementary School met with some senior citizens from Westminster Towers. The students learned a lot of cool things about their buddies, like a few of the buddies had 15 grandchildren!

The program will continue once a month for the rest of the school year and will end with the kids going to visit the buddies at their homes in Westminster Towers. Both classes are looking forward to doing this at the end of the year. They cannot wait to see how their lifestyles are different.

During the visit, the students had a nice lunch with the buddies. They got to ask a lot of get-to-know-you questions and learned a lot of interesting things. The most common questions were, “What is your favorite food?” “What did you like to do when you were my age?” and “Where did you grow up?”

The students met with their buddies on Veteran’s Day and got to walk with them in the OPES Veterans Day Parade. The students all had a great time. Some of the buddies, like Vernon Sumwalt, were veterans of World War II.

“Visiting with my buddy was very fun,” said Kate McPherson from Kim Price’s class. “I loved learning all the interesting things that he told us about.”

Like Kate, both classes loved meeting their buddies and looked forward to seeing them again in December.