 Students from a local elementary school connected with their elders by doing art projects at a nursing home. Our reporter Malak Katab shares with us how the students spent their time. Kidnavarners and 8th graders from Heartland Christian Academy visited with the elders today at Gold Pine Home. The kids sang songs and made arts and crafts inspired by Dr. Suze's book, The Lorax. And what kind of arts and crafts are you helping with today? Triphalotrees. Triphalotrees are a made-up plant from the children's book. And each month, when the kids visit the nursing home, they do an art project that is targeted towards that specific month. Because of Dr. Suze's birthday in March, so we decided and we just wanted to bring some sort of a spring-type tree flower into their room. The kids try and leave their art projects at the nursing home so the residents can have a memory of their visit. Graf says coming to the nursing home is a great service project for their students. Just to build a relationship with the residents here and every month our kids look forward to coming and each month we get more and more residents that show up. I've been told that a lot of Gold Pine residents that participate in the activities that the kids provide have a former background in education. We have a lot of residents who were teachers or school bus drivers or Sunday school teachers and so not only are the residents grandparents or great-grandparents but they do have that history of working with children and so it's really especially meaningful for those who spent a lot of time with children previously. The students look forward to their visit to Gold Pine and enjoy interacting with the residents every month. Reporting in Bemidji, Malakatab, Lakeland News. Each month the school brings different grade levels of students to visit the residents to connect with the elderly. If you enjoyed this segment of Lakeland News please consider making a tax-deductible contribution to Lakeland PBS.