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The first ABLE Bridging Generations Memory Workshop a success

Senior citizens, students and others playing ukulele
Source: ABLE press release

Pago Pago, AMERICAN SAMOA — Arriving for their first field trip for this year in light of COVID concerns, the residents of Hope House dressed in their best purple outfits greeted everyone with excitement and took advantage of all the activities at the first Bridging Generations Memory Workshop sponsored by Agency for Better Living Endeavors (ABLE).

Hope House Director Ms Katie McCutchan said, “Our Hope House elderly and caregivers thoroughly enjoyed today’s [Saturday’s] Making Memories Workshop hosted by ABLE and all of its wonderful partners. We thank everyone for putting together a great event to celebrate National Alzheimer’s awareness month.”

The ABLE workshop was successfully carried out with ABLE partners — ASG Territorial Administration on Aging (TAOA), ASG Department of Youth and Women’s Affairs (DYWA), Feleti Barstow Library, Hope House, Esther Generations — and ABLE volunteers. All of the partners provided materials for the workshop, food, venue, decorations and more.

“We are very grateful for the willingness of our community members and partners to support this cause and to help our people understand more about Alzheimer’s disease,” added Sandra Lutu, President of ABLE.

The memory workshop was held at the DYWA facilities in Tafuna between 8 a.m and 11 a.m this past Saturday. The workshop allowed elderly members of our community including those from TAOA and Hope House to work on three different projects with students from Samoana High School, Fagaitua High School, Tafuna High School and Pacific Horizons Academy.

The first and main activity was to put together fidget blankets for the elderly (to be distributed), the second station sponsored by Feleti Barstow Library was to continue making memories through literacy and fun (making cookies). The third project was to learn how to record and post a TikTok video for the ABLE Alzheimer’s month challenge.

TAOA Director Evelyn Lili’o-Satele expressed her appreciation for the opportunity to gather some of the elderly that participate in the TAOA program to enjoy a different set of activities and have the opportunity to share the wealth of knowledge that they have with the young students.

ABLE is a 501(C)3 non- profit organization founded by HC Afoa L. Su’esu’e Lutu in 2004 to provide a variety of services with the mission of improving the lives of our residents. Since 2019, ABLE has taken the lead to raise awareness about Alzheimer’s Disease in American Samoa with special emphasis in November, the National Alzheimer’s Awareness Month. The theme for 2021 is: MAKING MEMORIES, raising Alzheimer’s Disease Awareness in Amerika Samoa.