On Thursday, Oct. 5, Spanish Honor Society (SHS) played Spanish bingo at Rock Creek Senior Living Center in Ankeny. Instead of just numbers, the bingo cards had color squares with designated numbers written in Spanish.

Twenty seniors showed up to play.

“When I was making the bingo cards and sheets, I was asking how many people were going to show up and I got told 5-10 people,” junior Sammy Bryan said. “So when 20 people showed up, I thought that was really exciting.”

Rock Creek Senior Living Center focuses on keeping their seniors busy and entertained. They plan several events throughout the week for them ranging from playing bingo, UNO, outings, churches coming for communion, making crafts, hearing live music, and educational activities. Libby Kieslar, the resident services director, is in charge of planning the events. She makes sure that there is something for everyone to participate in.

“When you get older and your spouse passes away and your kids have their own lives and are not coming anymore, you lose your sense of purpose. That is what I found a lot here. They think that after you turn 70, you can’t make anymore memories and you’re just done waiting for the end,” Kieslar said. “It’s what they all say, but I like to remind them it’s actually the fun part of your life. You don’t have to work anymore, you can go do this and that, so just helping them find a reason to want to still be around is really rewarding.”

Playing Spanish bingo gave SHS members the chance to share time with many generations and spread their love of Spanish in the process. They helped spread smiles to the seniors. The seniors living at the center were able to learn and immerse themselves to learn colors and numbers in Spanish.

“My favorite part was translating [to them] and helping them with translations [with colors and numbers,” senior Alexandra Cabello said. “I really enjoyed doing that because I like teaching and showing other people Spanish.”

SHS is a group students can join after taking Spanish 3 and above. They focus on promoting the language and serving the community. Spanish teacher Jillian Anderson is the sponsor of the society, where she sets up and plans the events for students to engage with.

“It’s really important for our students to go out and use the language outside the classroom and show the community what Ankeny High Students can do,” Anderson said. “[Events] also help build partnerships and get our students out volunteering and helping places like these that host these events. It’s really important to volunteer in the community.”

SHS is looking to continue hosting events at the senior center. Laughter could be heard throughout the room reportedly. The seniors appeared to fully get into the game and became competitive.

“The event went really well, at first the residents were confused about needing to read Spanish, but the cheat sheet helped and it was really good for them to use their brains not only to locate the color, but locate the color with the proper number on it and looking at the cheat sheet,” Kieslar said. “It was a really good brain exercise [for them].”

This is the first time a SHS in the Ankeny area has done an event like this.

“Absolutely, I would do it again! That was the easiest silver cord hour I’ve ever gotten,” Cabello said. ”I would’ve done that for free!”

The society hopes that this will become a year after year tradition with the senior center.

“We are going to plan maybe a UNO event in February,” Anderson said. “So we’re hoping this is the beginning of a partnership for our students to come here [to host these events for the seniors].”

This story was originally published on The Talon on October 6, 2023.