UBCO group brings together young and old in Kelowna

A group at the University of British Columbia's Okanagan campus has been created to develop friendships between younger and older persons in the Kelowna community.

Patience Spinoza, a second-year Management student and President of AgeLink - UBCO, co-founded the group with help from several other UBC students along with Janice Gatenby and June Levulett, two senior Kelowna residents.

The complete list of people involved in founding the group includes Patience Spinoza Okuku, Solomon Kashaya, Salman Karmali, Daniel Kandie, Morgan Wang, Kanchana Pintapakang and Marlie Russell.

According to Spinoza, the group was created to bring people of all ages together and help reshape typical perceptions of aging.

“Our main reason for starting this club was to bridge the gap between the older and younger persons who seemed distant or separated from each other,” began Spinoza. “From birth, we immediately start aging and yet some people do not seem to realize that this is the one thing that we all have in common. Since we are aging every day, it is only wise of us to start working on making our society one that treasures rather than dreads aging.”

Spinoza went on to explain that the vision and goals of AgeLink expand far beyond the confines of the university campus.

“Our Mission is to create a community where persons of all ages freely interact and share love, care, friendship, knowledge, experience, and understanding,” said Spinoza. “Our Vision is to strive towards building long-term friendships between UBCO students and the older persons in the Kelowna community.”

In bringing people of different ages together, AgeLink has hosted and been involved in an array of events. So far, the group has hosted multiple dinners where attendees share meals and stories, as well as performed dances at a banquet hosted by Harmony UBCO.

According to Spinoza, the dance and dinners presented opportunities to dismantle stereotypes and establish connections.

“We hoped that through having both younger and older people dancing together, we could challenge the widely held stereotype that aging makes one physically less active. I think that when younger people saw the older people dancing energetically, new beliefs were created,” said Spinoza.

“At the dinners, we play a few games and generally, let everything flow on its own, Most important to the group is the primary connections that happen after these bigger events. Some people get interested in interacting more with one another and as such, invite their new friends for coffee, a walk, a jog, another event or a dinner.”

Spinoza came up with the idea for Agelink in part based on experiences growing up in Africa.

“Being an international student from Africa, I thought that the older persons and younger persons could benefit from each other. In Africa, older people are respected and seen as a living library which is what I’d love to see here as well. I thought that the young had as much to learn as they had to teach to the older persons.”

The opportunity to create Agelink presented itself after Spinoza enrolled in a Sociology of Aging course with Dr. MaryAnn Murphy. As part of the course, Spinoza had the chance to design a project through the Community Service Learning Program with Phil Bond and Lori Field. Spinoza also expressed gratitude for all the financial support offered by the UBCO Students’ Union, which continues to enable Agelink to host free events.

Currently, AgeLink is a growing group on campus and anyone interested in finding out more or attending future events is encouraged to email agelinkubco@yahoo.com or check out their FaceBook group at AGE LINK - UBCO