I first met Pamela Smith about 25 years ago. At the time, she was with the Chula Vista office of the Social Security administration. I recall that she had befriended a lady, Jess Baumgartener, who was more than 100 years of age. Jess was due to be interviewed by a group of elementary school children at the experimental school on the Southwestern College campus and I had been asked to be present and to record the proceedings. The subject matter of this interview, I recall, was that the young children in the fourth grade could not understand how Jess got from one place to another since there were no automobiles around.
I was, of course, impressed with Jess, and her ability to converse, intelligently, at her advanced age. I must confess, however, that I was just as impressed with Ms. Smith and her dedication to those two generations in our society that many of us hold dearly, children and the senior citizen set.
I met with Ms. Smith, the other day and we spoke of many things. For the past 10 years she has been the director of San Diego County’s Aging and Independent Services (AIS), an arm of the Health and Human Services Agency. She is also a member of the Chula Vista Elementary School District Board of Trustees. We, thus, are obliged to use that trite expression, she is a lady “who wears many hats.”
But the two hats, her association with the seniors of the county and her proximity to young children are, of course, the two most important.
The principal thoughts that we get from Ms. Smith is the general idea that seniors—those who have retired from some position in the salaried or corporate world—are still looking forward to many good years of living. These are the folks who, because of their longevity, have vast amounts of knowledge and wisdom that can, and should, be passed over to the young. We, thus, should capitalize on this rich source of aid.
Within the AIS is another agency, adopted in 2002, known as the Intergenerational programs. Judy Joffe is the coordinator and she has written a foreword, portions of which are rather profound.
“The next generation of retirees will live the longest, and be the healthiest, best educated and most affluent in history,” she writes. They have the belief that older adults are one of the most valuable and natural resources and with that belief AIS has partnered with multiple community-based entities to create programs for the purposes of serving hundreds of youth and older adults.
An example of this is a current program in Bonita. The International Dance program unites 20 sixth grade students with 20 adults who are at least 50 years old. Its vision is to bring together youth and active adults to share in the joy of dance together. They intend to facilitate dance and story sharing to create a sense of community and well-being in the participants. We understand that the first meeting of this group will be at the Bonita-Sunnyside Library, Community Room on Sept. 25.
They will then meet periodically until the final get-together on Nov. 7.
Another program is the high school component of the Alex Smith Guardian Scholarship Program. This comes under the Alex Smith Foundation. He is the son of Pam and her husband Doug. Alex Smith is a professional football player with the San Francisco 49ers, who has instituted his foundation principally to assist those youngsters leaving the world of foster children. It is designed to increase the number of foster youths into higher education.
Ms. Smith her husband and family have lived in Bonita for 20 years.
