By Taylah Eastwell
Students of Emerson School and residents of Dandenong Valley Village Mews Retirement Village are dancing away the line that divides younger and older generations.
Both young and old pulled on their dancing shoes on Thursday 28 November when they met for an intergenerational line dance at the Dandenong Valley Village Mews Retirement Village before the residents presented the students with a cheque.
The school and the retirement village have an extensive history, having met with each other for the past 25 years.
Throughout 2019, both residents and students have been involved in a line dancing program ran by Middle Campus Principal Dianne Wright and Emerson Teacher Elizabeth Ralph.
The residents of Dandenong Valley Village Mews Retirement Village donate money to the school for each lesson, having raised around $30,000 for the school over their 25 year friendship.
Principal Dianne Wright said the program is a wonderful program based on mutual respect and kindness.
“Many long and enduring friendships have been made between the students, staff and residents,” she said.
The money donated to the school has been used to benefit the students and has seen the establishment of new playgrounds, the financing of audio visual equipment and uniforms for their RACV Energy Breakthrough teams, and more recently it financed the cross-campus broadcasting of assemblies when poor weather prevents students moving between both campuses.
