Maryland Aloha Alumni Take Aim at the Generation Gap

Aloha Workshop alumni lead a community-building activity during Sunday Service.

After graduating from the Aloha Leadership Workshop, Lilyanna Patton, MaryJean Hunter, Gunguk Kim and Cecile Caron went back to the Maryland Community with plans for a project inspired by what they had just learned.

At the close of the workshop, which took place at East Garden from December 28 to 31, 2015, participants broke up into regional groups and, with the assistance of the workshop staff, brainstormed ways to help their community.

The Maryland participants decided to focus on the generation gap in their community. Cecile said, “It seems that in the Unificationist community as a whole there is a generation gap that causes distance and miscommunication between generations. This family atmosphere that we are aiming for could be created in the whole community.”

The team decided to begin with a lighthearted activity during Sunday Service in order to engage the community. Cecile commented, “We chose this project in particular because, although we would ideally like for the members of the community to eventually share more deeply with one another and reach out on their own accord, the monthly fun activities provide a space that many need for the start of any good relationship-focused quality time spent together.”

The team sought out volunteers from the community and found many people who were eager to participate. The activity turned into a game that the team presented after Sunday service called “The Newlyfriend Game.” 

Multi-generational group of volunteers play “The Newlyfriend Game”.

Based on the well-known television game show The Newlywed Game, it paired younger and elder Unificationist volunteers to have a two-minute conversation and then test how well they knew each other with a few out-of-the-box multiple choice questions, such as, “If your partner was a Disney princess, which one would he/she be?”. The congregation was extremely engaged, laughing and enjoying the game. It was a good beginning to bring people together.

MaryJean and her dad, Alexander Hunter, offered a prayer together at the end of the service, underlining the value of having two generations involved in each other’s lives. The whole event was a huge success. Many of the staff and participants noticed that the game immediately resulted in more mingling between people of different generations. The team hopes to organize similar activities focused on intergenerational communication and to have them integrated into one Sunday service each month. 

Two participants high five each other at the end of the activity