September 15, 2026 —This spring, Barclay Friends residents and fourth-grade students from Exton Elementary School came together for “Voices of the Past, Stories for the Future,” an intergenerational oral history project centered on conversation, storytelling and connection.
Students interviewed residents about their lives, families, careers and experiences with historical events, then created personalized biographies based on what they learned. When the students returned in June, they presented residents with the finished books, along with handwritten poems and flowers.
The project gave students an opportunity to learn directly from older adults while offering residents a chance to reflect on and preserve their stories for a new generation.
Read more about “Voices of the Past, Stories for the Future” in MyChesCo, McKnight’s Senior Living and the Daily Local News.
Barclay Friends residents Roger Meacham and Ginny Ogden hold biographies written about them by fourth graders. (BILL RETTEW/MEDIANEWS GROUP)