Women's Lacrosse Player Luis Starts Poetry For Life Club at Willamette

By Robert McKinney, Assistant Athletics Director, Communications, (503) 370-6110

SALEM, Ore. -- Willamette University women's lacrosse player Katie Luis (Sr./Fr., D, Bend, OR/Summit HS), who previously worked as a nursing assistant at a nursing home, was looking for a way to help senior citizens  in Salem, especially those with dementia or Alzheimer's. She came up with an idea, started planning, and created the Poetry For Life Club at Willamette.

According to Luis, the club uses "poems, music, rhyme and rhythm, as well as other forms of interpersonal communication to connect with people who have varying types of dementia. We interact with residents at Redwood Heights Senior Living. We are usually in a group setting, and we have residents participate in call-and-response poetry, mad-lib type activities, creating poems with their own life experiences, and really doing anything we can to connect with these wonderful people. Sometimes that just means sitting and talking about whatever they feel like sharing."

Once Luis thought of starting the club, she needed to find additional members to maximize its potential. She found four other Willamette students who were willing to help create the new club. Current members in addition to Luis are Hope Duenas from the Willamette women's track and field team, plus Katie Ortega, Daniel Smith and Korie Rowell.

Although the club was only recently formed, Luis was able to report that "I have a few other students who are interested in joining already." Luis also said that she was hoping even more students would become members of the group. "We have only gone to Redwood Heights one time. I think for now it is important to focus on this one location since we were so well received, and if we have enough interest and participants in the club, we can branch out to other nursing homes."

Luis' interest in helping others goes back before she arrived at Willamette for the fall semester in 2016.

"Before I moved to Salem, I worked as a nursing assistant in a nursing home in which residents needed assistance in doing many daily living activities," Luis recalled. "Each patient had their own disabilities, including many with Alzheimer's dementia. Each person that is affected by Alzheimer's is completely unique in their diagnosis, especially when it comes to communication. It took me a while to figure out each one of my residents' individual communication style.

"Many times the way they communicate with you is different than how they need you to communicate with them," Luis added. "As I got more comfortable with each resident, and learned more about their personalities, many had one thing in common ... they all were able to recognize and respond in some way to music. Some had one song they would sing every day. Others it didn't matter the song, they would just light up when the music came on. Not to mention that some residents don't have any family who visit, so it's nice to try to spend time with those residents when others have visitors.

"I knew this was a special skill, and I wanted to show others how much fun it was to be able to communicate with and laugh with someone whose world may be scary because they never know where they are," Luis said. "It really began with just me finding the Alzheimer's Poetry Projects (APPs) website. I had initially planned on doing research on the scientific portion of how music and poetry can help people with Alzheimer's. Then the four other students in my class wanted to join! I couldn't have done it without them, or without the help of Associate Professor of English Mike Chasar helping us get funding to take the online training through APPs founder Gary Glazner."

"We were assigned to do a poetry project for our English class (Topics in American Literature, 50 Great American Poems)," Duenas said. "We were given free reign on this project, as long as it had something that involved poetry. During class, we were sharing our preliminary ideas for the projects and Katie brought up an organization that she had put some research into called Alzheimer's Poetry Projects. I wasn't quite sure what I wanted to do for my project yet, so our professor, Michael Chasar, suggested that I and others join Katie in taking this project on.

"Katie played a large role in helping the Poetry For Life Club become an active club on campus," Duenas commented. "She contacted the directors of multiple nursing homes/assisted living homes so we could visit them. She wrote important parts of a proposal ... so we could receive training. She attended a student senate meeting and vouched for our club to become officially recognized at Willamette. I helped work on the proposal and helped create a curriculum to follow during our first visit to the assisted living home. In short, what was a semester-long English class project turned into the Poetry For Life Club."

Now that Luis has been able to put the Poetry For Life Club into motion, she wants to see it involve more students.

"I am hoping that I can grow the club numbers in the one semester I will be able to be president of the club (before graduating in the spring of 2019)," Luis said. "I would love for it to grow to the point where we are able to go visit the assisted living residents at least once a month."

"I can definitely see this club growing in membership," Duenas concurred. "This club is an opportunity for students to give back to a part of our community that often goes overlooked while creating a bridge between our two generations. Considering the amount of community service Willamette students already participate in, I think this club will be something that will spark their interests, just as it did mine."

Willamette students who would like to join the Poetry for Life Club should contact Luis at kmluelling@willamette.edu.

While the focus of the club is to bring human interaction and joy into the lives of retirees, especially those with dementia, it's not the only outcome Luis is seeking. Her own experiences have shown that students also gain something from working with the elderly. It's a chance for people representing different generations to learn about each other and their different experiences. They can also find out that their are things people have in common across generations.

"I think this club can teach students a lot about many different aspect of life," Luis added. "They can learn about a generation of the population that not many people get to interact with on a regular basis. They will develop a different communication style, they can learn that it's okay to put down the books and the worlds' problems for a little while and just go have fun interacting with people ... After spending only an hour with them, you will understand why they are called the greatest generation."

"During our first nursing home visit I learned that the residents living there are in fact people, and this is often something that we can forget," Duenas said. "Just because they are older, have a disease, or need help with simple things like remembering where they are, doesn't mean they aren't people. These people were once exactly where we are right now: a college student, a professor, an individual. Katie reminded me that the residents still want to do things, they just can't necessarily do them on their own. As I sat there and spoke and listened to the residents' stories I realized that they lived during huge historical events like World War II or the Great Depression that are far more important and touching than anything we can read out of history books."

Being a student and leading a club providing community service are just two parts of Luis' experiences at Willamette. She's also ready for her first season of intercollegiate women's lacrosse competition.

Luis played lacrosse all four years at Summitt High School in Bend, Oregon. Her team began competing in a league when she was a sophomore and the sport was offered at more schools in the Bend area. She played on Summit's first girls' lacrosse team and now she is on Willamette's first team, too. The Bearcats will begin competing this spring.

"I joined the lacrosse team at Willamette when it was a club team, but did not get to participate last year very much because of a back injury I sustained at work," Luis recalled. "So the fall ball we just finished a few weeks ago was really the start of my lacrosse experience here at Willamette."