Now that many senior center budgets are being cut, Sheela Wolford, educator and writer, is more determined than ever to help as many seniors as she can with her new memoir project.
Full of opportunities and free of charge, "Elder Campfire: What I Want You to Know Before I Go" will launch in September and will be available to any senior in the tri-state area willing to participate.
Wolford, 55, lost her mother in April 2010 and understands the sentimental longing a child has for a tangible memory of their parents or grandparents.
“I thought how, when a parent or grandparent crosses over, we miss that voice,” she said.
What motivated Wolford to launch this project was the look of disappointment a woman expressed after asking Wolford for a voice recording of her deceased mother and learning that there was nothing to hand over.
“That’s when my role as facilitator struck home. I knew right then that I needed to offer seniors an oral format as well as print to tell their families what they wanted them to know.”
Elder Campfire “is a new arm of the regular workshop I am doing,” said Wolford.
"Workshops by Wolford," her memoir writing class, has been hosted at Flushing House since 2009.
“We look for energetic, passionate self starters to lead programs in house here at the Flushing House retirement community,” said Joshua Lutz, the activities director of Flushing House. “We found exactly that in Sheela Wolford.”
During her workshops, Wolford offers prompts and instructs the seniors to write down their continued thoughts for those leads.
“They always say they don’t [know] what to [write] so I kind of plant a seed,” Wolford said. “They are really rich with values and are emotionally resilient. They’ve gone through so much and they have so much life. It just pours out of them.”
Elder Campfire is what Wolford believes to be the next step in supplying families with “their relative’s thoughts, stories, and memories.”
“How seniors feel about themselves and their ability to adjust to life experiences is an important factor in their health and their grandchildren and future family members will benefit from their advice,” she said.
Elder Campfire will consist of one-on-one video footage of seniors telling their families what they feel is important. The footage will then be edited and transferred onto DVDs that will be distributed to the families.
“I really want each family to have one DVD of just their loved ones.”
Wolford said she hopes to eventually “take all the recordings and try to make them into a documentary as well.”
Wolford will film the footage wherever the seniors feel at ease. If they are not able to come to her she will visit them in the comfort of their own homes.
Fundraising for the memoir project will be done via kick starter. Kick starter runs on the basis of crowd funding and allows the artist to accept funds in exchange for rewards determined by the artist.
Wolford is grateful to all individuals and businesses that help fund her project and hopes to get major sponsors as well.
“I don’t mind if they want their name in the title,” she laughed, “as long as I meet the $7500 budget.”
Wolford moved around a lot as a child because her father was in the air force. Her family eventually settled down in El Paso, Texas after her father retired in 1965. She attended the University of Texas at El Paso and worked in public relations for 13 years until she moved to Brooklyn with her two daughters, Leila and Sarah, in 1997.
“I wanted my daughters to grow up with more diversity,” she said. “You can’t find this [New York] energy anywhere else.”
Once in New York, Wolford worked as a communications director for the YMCA Teen Action Program and gave seminars at the Washington Irving High School in NYC.
“That’s when I fell in love with workshops,” she recalled.
When asked why she does the senior workshops Wolford responded, “Just to see the look on their faces, that’s why I do it.”
She views her role as a workshop instructor as fulfilling and helpful and she enjoys every minute of it.
“I always leave the workshop feeling so honored and humbled,” she said. “It really changes me.”
