A Fort Smith event designed to build connections between people from different generations was such a success, the organizer is planning monthly follow-ups.
The event, dubbed GrandFriends, was planned by Isabelle Solberg.
Moving to Fort Smith with her young family a few years ago when her husband became the Father of St John’s Anglican Church, Solberg left her broader family support network behind.
Her first GrandFriends event saw around 50 people convene at the church on Tuesday afternoon.
“What a lot of people are looking for is community,” she said. “Not only the people who’ve moved here from all kinds of places in the world, but also the people who live here and whose children have moved away.”
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While the event name suggests an intent to connect children and seniors, it was open to the broader community.
“Sometimes things happen and you need someone to call,” said Solberg.
“If you need someone to watch your children, to grab a coffee with, to have a bad day and just get out and just … you need to have a community around you that you can fall back on.”
The event did what it was supposed to do, Solberg said later, noting there were families with young children, older children who were dropped off, and parents and seniors who came alone or with other family members.
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“And we all sat together and all talked to each other,” she said.
“We mixed, so it wasn’t just one family there and one family there. We all had coffee together and had snacks together. And that was great. So I got really positive feedback, and the atmosphere was really great.”
She said while most people who came were already familiar with each other, she hopes as word spreads more and more people will come to make new connections at the next event in February or March.
Solberg plans to advertise future GrandFriends events on Facebook and through posters put up around town.
