Madison Campanile scouts a place to photograph Helen Schwartz. Campanile found she and Helen had a few things in common– both have younger brothers, like to write and have curly hair. “Now I realize that we’re all kind of the same and that older people aren’t that different from younger people," Campanile said. "It’s just they’ve lived longer and they have wrinkles and stuff.” Listen:
The hallways at a Tucson senior living community echoed with number-letter combinations and the occasional jubilant call of “bingo,” on a Saturday morning in January.
Noticeable among the residents of Villa Hermosa are a dozen school-age children with digital cameras.
Madison Campanile, 10, trailed 95-year-old Helen Schwartz, as she zipped toward an outdoor balcony on an electric scooter. Campanile lets Schwartz lead the way, in part, because she’s nervous.
“I have a hard time talking to people who are older than me because I think they might think low of me,” Madison said. “I’m younger and I don’t know as much. So they might think ‘Oh, when I was that age I knew a lot more than she did.’”
Madison is part of the Through Our Eyes Club at Vail Academy and High School. The group learns to take photos, conduct interviews and write with the goal of producing an audio slideshow about a senior citizen in the community.
“Our overall concept or idea of this club is that everybody has a story and has a story worth telling,” said fifth-grade teacher and club facilitator Ashley Curtis.
The club started with a community service focus, but that shifted after Curtis’ grandmother was diagnosed with cancer five years ago.
She documented the illness that led to her grandmother’s death with photographs.
“It also gave me an opportunity to honor her and her journey and the choices that she made,” Curtis said.
The same year, one of her student’s mothers died from cancer. The two connected through photography. It was a way to talk about their loss without naming it outright. The pictures gave shape to feelings they couldn’t describe in words.
“I think my original plan was to bring more arts into writing, literacy through photography,” Curtis said. “Originally I wanted to take kids who struggled with writing and struggled with reading and allow them to be their own creators.”
“Here’s the thing I can do that nobody believes," Helen Schwartz said before hoisting her leg onto a ballet barre in Villa Hermosa's gym. A Visit to Villa Hermosa
While Madison retrieved her camera, Helen Schwartz prepared for her close-up.
“If you’re going to photograph me, I’m going to put some lipstick on,” Schwartz said.
But first, Madison shared a story. On her last visit, she found out Schwartz once wrote a book.
“I decided I might get a professional author’s idea on my writing to see if I would ever become good at it,” Madison said.
Once upon a time there was a teen girl who was living a life that you could only dream of. However, this wasn’t the kind of dream you are thinking of. It was a nightmare, one of the worst….
She unspooled a tale filled with goblins, ghouls and a mysterious shadow.
Schwartz listened intently from her electric scooter and immediately asked to see the story when Madison finished.
“I would love to have copy of it. We’ll make a copy of it before you leave," Schwartz said. “Pretty impressive, pretty amazing.”
Ariana King photographs Marvin Fortman. “Oh I just love her, it’s been such a pleasure, she asks the questions in the right way and she just listens," Fortman said. Inside the resort-like community, 12-year-old Ariana King photographed Marvin Fortman with pictures from his service in the Korean War.
Fortman recounted his life experiences with great detail and, at times, hardly any noticeable breath between sentences.
For example:
“You could call me Professor Fortman, Dr. Fortman, Marvin Fortman or Mr. Fortman, I’ll answer to any of those.”
Ariana is impressed by Fortman's education. He attended the University of Arizona and then New York University on a scholarship. She plans to skip eighth grade next year and graduate from high school by the time she is 16.
“It’s been really good to just listen to him because I’ve learned what his life is about and I’ve learned like all the things that he’s gone through," King said. "It’s just really cool to listen to someone’s story besides mine and my family’s.”
Fortman said he wants to keep in touch with Ariana, that she might know more about him now than some of his children.
“It makes me feel good, because when you’re older, no one really wants to hear it, they want you to listen to their story,” Fortman said. “There’s really a catharsis to have someone listen to you as you ramble on.”
King said she wanted to show how Fortman served his country so she has him hold up photos from his time in the Korean War. Honoring their story
The students return to the classroom with dozens of pictures and pages of notes. Over the next few months they write, edit, revise and narrate their stories.
Curtis said students in the club are stronger writers at the end of the year. She sees it in her own classroom and hears the same from other teachers.
“Instead of giving them a text – here read this text now write about it – you create the text, you make the pictures, now you write about the pictures that you’ve put together," Curtis said. "It gives them ownership and when you have ownership, when it’s your own work, you do better, you try harder.”
Madison Campanile's final video is three minutes, 40 seconds. Her images show Schwartz exercising, painting and – more then anything else – smiling.
“Now I realize that we’re all kind of the same and that older people aren’t that different from younger people," Madison said. "It’s just they’ve lived longer and they have wrinkles and stuff.”
Through Our Eyes will present "Power to Inspire: Honoring the Stories of Our Elders" at the Loft Cinema on Saturday, April 2nd at 10 a.m. The club requests a $5 donation which will go toward the Loft Cinema and a non-profit of the students’ choice
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