Grandparents and their grandkids don’t always live close enough to each other to spend time together on a regular basis. Wheeler High School senior Kylie Garcia knows this all too well.

“I’ve always grown up far away from my grandparents,” she said, adding that one set of grandparents lives in upstate New York and the other set in Florida. “I’d see them maybe around holidays and sometimes during the summertime, so I didn’t really have much time to interact with them, and when I did, it was great and I wish I could interact with them more.”

For her Girl Scout Gold Award, she’s bridging the generational gap by creating a Crafting Connections partnership between students at North Stonington Elementary School and seniors at the town senior center. Once a month, kids will take the bus to the Wheeler Library to meet with seniors for story time, a craft, and a snack.

“The senior citizens love to get read to by the children,” Garcia said. “They’ve done programs in the past at the elementary school where they had third-graders read to the senior citizens, and they loved that, so I decided to take that concept into the program.”

Garcia started working with librarian Amy Kennedy to get book recommendations and ideas for each meeting, which usually correlates with a holiday. Books at the first meeting Oct. 6 were about back-to-school experiences, and kids worked with the seniors to make bookmarks and a magnet to showcase their schoolwork on the refrigerator at home. The next meeting will be Oct. 27 and will have a Halloween theme.

Gold Award projects have to address a community issue or need, and Garcia said the she’s received a lot of positive feedback from parents who are excited for the program. The Oct. 6 meeting had 24 students from first- through third-grade, and the three who were registered but not there were participating in another library program downstairs.

Senior center director Teresa Pensis said there used to be a daycare center next to the senior center, and the seniors enjoyed inviting the kids over.

“It’s nice because some of them didn’t have children, some don’t have grandchildren nearby,” she said. “And it’s good for the kids. Old people aren’t scary.”

Garcia said the program benefits everyone involved because it gets seniors out and about and interacting with people, and the kids get to practice their reading and social skills. Donna Kitlenski, who worked with a group of first-graders, said the book her group was given was a little difficult because it was longer and had some tough vocabulary, but overall they did a good job.

In addition to providing town residents with an intergenerational activity, Garcia hopes her project will also show people that Girl Scouts are still relevant, even at her age. People know about Eagle Scouts, she said, but many don’t know that Girl Scouts continues on into high school as well, or girls drop out before they get to that level.

Since Garcia graduates in June, she has the events planned through April, but because Gold Award projects also have to be sustainable, the library will take on Crafting Connections when she leaves. Currently the program is free, but future events may charge a fee to cover snacks and supplies.

Even though the seniors joked their favorite part of the day was snack, they’ll be back for the Halloween event.

a.hutchinson@theday.com

Twitter: @ahutch411