MANVILLE: Seniors treated to worldly visits

By Mary Ellen Zangara, Special Writer
   The Manville and Hillsborough Senior Citizens went on a trip Friday without even leaving the senior center in Manville. The group took a trip Around the World with the help of some Girl Scouts.
   Junior Girl Scouts in Troop 61245 from Branchburg and their co- leaders, Susan Williams and Marci Taylor, came to the center last week.
   ”The girls have been together since kindergarten and this is their sixth year of Scouting and they are working on their Bronze award project. They were to put together a day around the world so seniors could visit other countries without ever leaving Manville,” Ms. Williams said.
   The Girl Scouts helped Lisa Carr, the senior center manager, plan the event.
   ”They wanted to run an intergenerational program so the students learn something and the seniors learn something, also. This is the first time we had this and the girls spent a lot of time studying their countries and it is a perfect opportunity for the seniors to learn about countries that possibly they never visited,” Ms. Carr said.
   The seniors moved from country to country and in Hungary they learned about the country and ate Hungarian cookies; in Spain heard about bull fighting and the Spanish history and enjoyed Spanish peanut cookies. In Guatemala they tried pan de banano (banana bread) and drank hot Christmas punch of apple juice, cranberry juice with cinnamon sticks and orange slices.
   Stopping in Great Britain, they were given a flag to make and learned about the queen and sampled tea and scones. In Australia the Girl Scouts handed each senior a package with puzzles, information and a song and they tried Anzac biscuits and Lamingtons.
   France was another stop as they listened to the girls in their berets helping them speak a few French words like “bonjour, adieu and merci.” Cream puffs were the treat in France.
   Josephine Pschar thought the Girl Scouts did a “very lovely job. We learned a lot from the different nations that they were presenting and they had a lot of information to share with us.”
   Rita Jones was impressed with the event. “I have never been to any of these countries and it was very nice. I like Australia because I think I would like to go there someday. The girls did very well,” she said.