Colourful benches popping up around Summerside

Youth, seniors work together to design age-friendly benches

SUMMERSIDE — When Bev Cornish was asked to help decorate benches to put around Summerside, she was eager to sign up.

“I was quick to say yes,” she said. “To provide these colourful benches for downtown, different areas throughout the city, I thought it was a wonderful idea.”

The Summerside Bench Project was conceived in the summer of 2019 as way to help make Summerside more age friendly.

It was put on by the Age Friendly Cities Committee – now Age Friendly P.E.I – and received funding from the New Horizons for Seniors program to help bring it to life.

After working with Summerside’s Department of Community Services, the committee identified eight places around the city where there had been a high demand for benches.

Once they determined where the benches would go, the committee gathered both groups and individuals to paint them, in teams of eight consisting of both youth and seniors.

Cornish was one of the seniors that worked on the project. She, along with her sister, worked with the Summerside Rangers, Pathfinders and Girl Guides to breathe life into their bench.

“We kind of let the young ladies take the lead on the design,” said Cornish. “They were very talented, we had a lot of laughs and carrying-on and we worked really well together, I thought.”

Their bench, which went up by the Credit Union Place, is painted with a train station.

In every painting, there is a common theme. Each design represents one of the eight pillars of an agefriendly community – including transportation, housing and civic participation.

“Some of the groups had very complex designs,” said Nancy Beth Guptill, project coordinator for the Age Friendly Cities Committee. “Which is awesome.”

It’s not just in the painting that the project was age friendly, but the benches themselves were designed with seniors and people with mobility issues in mind.

They’re wider and higher off the ground than the average bench, and have armrests to help users get up and down.

“It’s a wonderful thing to provide these benches that are seniorfriendly,” said Cornish. “And to work with young people is a wonderful experience.”

AGE-FRIENDLY SUMMERSIDE

Guptill said she was in love with the bench project the moment she heard of it.

“As a mature woman with a heart issue, sometimes … I need to take a rest,” she said. “I hope we can put more benches out there.”

Having more places to stop and take a breath while out and about, Guptill said, will ideally encourage seniors to get out and be active; that was one of the goals of the project.

Another goal the project hoped to achieve was social inclusion.

Having youth and seniors work together created socialization and mentorship opportunities, with people of all ages getting to mentor each other and collaborate.

The project focused on seniors. It wanted to get them involved and actively participating, and wanted to eliminate ageism.

“Some of the people were really sad when the project came to an end,” said Guptill. “They were very passionate, and same with the youth. They really enjoyed it as well, because there were good friendships that were made.”

The Age Friendly Cities Committee originally aimed to complete the project by spring 2020. The pandemic put a pause to their plans, though, so it wasn’t until that November that the painting finally got underway.

After more COVID-related interruptions, the benches finally went up around the city in late April 2021.

According to Guptill, some groups took up to fifteen sessions to complete their bench.

Cornish and her group, though, only needed three days. Despite the short amount of time it took, she loved every minute of it.

“It was a wonderful opportunity for seniors and young people to work together and share a vision and make it come about,” said Cornish. “I’m excited to go down and use the bench myself.”