The Allendale LEGO Kids visiting our City Hall and Mayor Stephen Mandel

This post describes the adventures of the Allendale LEGO Kids, a community-based Jr.FLL team participating in the 2012 challenge Super Seniors. For more information about the team, visit their home page.

During the first team meeting of the Allendale LEGO Kids at the beginning of December the team send a letter to the Mayor of Edmonton, Stephen Mandel, requesting a meeting to discuss programs and initiative the City has in place for seniors. A few weeks later we got a phone call from the Mayor’s office inviting us to visit City Hall to meet with the Mayor and representatives from his office. At 10am on January 2 the Allendale LEGO Kids convened in the South Lobby of the City Hall for their visit. We were met by Betty Loree, the Mayor’s Seniors’ Initiative Advisor. Unbeknownst to us at the time of our visit, Ms. Loree is also known as Ms. City Hall and has been working at the City Hall since 1973 (which means that she has served under 9 different mayors). In 2010 she retired and had an elm dedicated to her at Sir Winston Churchill Square, but soon thereafter the Mayor (re)appointed her as his “eyes and ears” to provide advise on the issues, challenges and needs of Edmonton’s seniors.

Ms. Loree gave us a presentation of the various initiatives and programs the City of Edmonton has developed to improve the quality of life for seniors. She told us about a global movement Edmonton is part of that was initiated by World Health Organization aiming to reshape communities to be more inclusive to the needs of an aging population. What is particularly remarkable about this initiative, that is referred to as the Age-Friendly Edmonton, is that most improvements benefitting seniors also directly benefit citizens of other age groups. For example, improving accessibility to public transport through the use of ramps also benefits disabled people, parents with strollers and children.

The team also got to meet Linda Hut, the City Hall School teacher in residence. The City Hall School offers teachers an opportunity to move their classroom to a community site, in this case City Hall, for a week of hands on learning by turning the world into a classroom. The team also had the opportunity to tell their hosts about their Jr.FLL project, the Super Senior challenge and about all the cool robotics they have been developing using LEGO.

After the presentations the Mayor came by to visit with the team and answer some of the questions the team and their  parents had. Some of the questions the team had for Ms. Loree, Ms. Hut and the Mayor were:

• What initiatives or programs aimed at seniors is the City planning to develop in the future? (The City will continue to improve access to facilities and make infrastructure even more senior friendly.)
• Are there ways for seniors to access the Edmonton River Valley and activities there for seniors? (Many of the trails in the River Valley have been paved to improve accessibility.)
• Are there any ramps in buses so seniors with wheelchairs can get on the bus? (Many busses in Edmonton are able to kneel to allow seniors, wheelchair, strollers and children easier access.)
• Who helps seniors shovel sidewalks? (The city runs the Snow Angels program, an awareness and recognition program encouraging Edmontonians to help a neighbour in need by shovelling their snow.)
• How does the City help people who are visually impaired? (The city is looking into getting bigger and more visible traffic lights for pedestrians at crossing.)

As it turned out (perhaps not surprisingly) the Mayor is a LEGO fan as well and in one of the rooms in City Hall he actually has a (very) large LEGO model of Edmonton. After everyone got their questions answered the children, parents, Ms. Loree, Ms. Hut and Mayor Mandel proceeded out from the City Hall classroom to the grand stair case for pictures followed by a tour of City Hall by Ms. Loree.

Our visit to the City Hall was an information packed and educational experience for everyone, not just about the various age-friendly initiatives our city is undertaking but also about the role of the City Hall in our city as the home of our civic leadership and a gathering place for the community. We also came to the rather neat realization that City Hall is actually ours and that the Mayor, Ms. Loree and Ms. Hut are just a few of the caretakers of this important and beautiful building. Perhaps one of the key take home messages we learned was that Edmonton, despite its snowy, icy and bitterly cold winters is one of the most senior friendly cities in Canada and the world. That is something to be proud of.

We would like to thank Ms. Loree, Ms. Hut and Mayor Mandel for inviting us to visit our City Hall and for taking the time to meet with a band of LEGO obsessed and insatiably curious kids and their parents.

Below are a few pictures from our visit. More pictures are posted on flickr.

Discussing senior initiatives with Mayor Stephen Mandel.

The Mayor of Edmonton, Stephen Mandel, together with the Allendale LEGO Kids.

Mayor Stephen Mandel’s LEGO version of Edmonton with City Hall (building with pyramid on the roof).

Allendale LEGO Kids in the Council Chamber with Ms. Loree studying the inside of the glass pyramid roof.

From the desk of the Allendale LEGO Kids coach

May the curiosity be with you, always! This is from the “The Rocket Scientists” blog ( http://therocketscientists.ca ).