JC Sulzenko’s 48-page storybook adaptation of her one-act play about 11-year-old Jake and his grandma, who is living with Alzheimer’s disease, is now available from this website.
Illustrated in full colour by Gary Frederick, the book lets young readers, ages 8-12, and their families, share Jake’s experience as he watches his grandma change from world traveller, expert birder and best cookie baker to someone who forgets where she lives and cannot remember his name. Once Grandma moves to a long-term care residence, Jake becomes her regular Saturday visitor. He develops a routine and knows what to expect when he is with her, until an extraordinary conversation makes him think she is cured.
The book takes readers down Jake’s path as he learns how Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias affect not only the people living with such dementia but also people in their families, including the children, who can be drawn into the role of caregivers.
With answers to frequently asked questions and a list of key website where more information is available, the book allows families a way to discuss with their children what is happening in their lives and helps each member of the family develop his or her own strengths and strategies for supporting someone dear to them, who is affected by Alzheimer’s or a related dementia.
A Play for children from JC Sulzenko
What my grandma means to say, JC’s one-act play, gives elementary school-aged children and their families the chance to learn in a gentle way about how Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias can affect a person and what they can do to support someone living such a disease.
The setting provided by the play encourages children to ask questions in a safe-feeling environment, removed from the emotion that attaches when such an illness affects someone close to them.
The play can be performed by students for students or read aloud by a teacher or a volunteer. It kick-starts a discussion, moderated by a teacher or community member, who uses the questions and answers in The Discussion Guide, which was written and designed to complement the play. The Guide also includes the script of the play and sources of further information and suggests activities tied to the curriculum and to family experience to help build awareness and understanding of such diseases. A downloadable pdf. of the updated guide will be available in late spring, 2012.
When schools present the play as a ‘one-time’ event, JC would like to know that it is being performed and requests that the play to be performed as the script is written and her be authorship acknowledged publicly. When organizations such as non-for-profit or charitable organizations wish to use the play in their educational programming, they enter into a simple written agreement with JC that gives them permission to use the material. A modest honorarium seals that agreement. There is no set amount for the honorarium which is related to the organization’s ability to pay and to the project’s budget and scope.
JC is available to present the play to young audiences and to adults to encourage dialogue on a health challenge facing many Canadian families. The Alzheimer Society of Ottawa and Renfrew County , the Alzheimer Society of Prince Edward County and the Alzheimer Society Thunder Bay have built the play into their youth education programming.
A storybook adaptation of the play was published in the Spring of 2011, and a pilot performance of the play is now available on YouTube.
“What My Grandma Means to Say” plays in Thunder Bay
Professional actors took JC’s play into local elementary schools in March through a project for which the Alzheimer Society of Thunder Bay (ASTB) received an $8000 grant from the Thunder Bay Community Foundation.
JC welcomed the new partnership with ASTB and applauded the Society’s initiative to engage elementary school-aged students in learning together about dementia through “What My Grandma Means to Say.” ASTB donated a copy of the storybook about Jake and his grandma to each school’s library.
The project includes an art dimension by giving each student the opportunity to contribute a square that will be assembled into a memory quilt, one for each school. Here’s a link to media coverage of the program in Thunder Bay. http://www.tbnewswatch.com/entertainment/196736/Living-with-Alzheimer%27s. Shaw media posted its coverage on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4_I-HKvPkuE.
Talking with Kids about Alzheimer’s: “What My Grandma Means to Say,” the video.
[jwplayer config=”JCvideoplayer” mediaid=”3456″]
Here’s a video that shows how to stage “What My Grandma Means to Say” as a play for elementary school-aged students. Performed last October by actors from Prince Edward Collegiate Institute in Picton, Ontario, for 200 students from C.M.L. Snider School in Wellington, Ontario, the play kick-starts discussions to which kids bring their questions, their own perceptions and their experiences about supporting someone who is living with Alzheimer’s. The production was made possible by a community partnership between the Alzheimer Society of Prince Edward County, Prince Edward Collegiate Institute and JC Sulzenko and by financial support from The Community Foundation of Ottawa and The Organix Foundation, Montreal. The March issue of Canadian Teacher Magazine profiled the video among news items on page 34. http://www.canadianteachermagazine.com/pdf/CTM-MarApr12.pdf