DEARBORN — Students from Becker and Oakman Elementary Schools celebrated the holidays singing Christmas carols to senior citizens at the Oakman Common Retirement Community.

A group of about 30 students at both schools spent three months attending after  school singing lessons to practice for the event, held on Thursday December 10. 

Music instructor Katie Essian, who works for various schools within the district, assisted the students in rehearsals.

Nofilia Haidar, council president of the district’s PTA, said that the senior citizens were overjoyed during the event. 

“They made their day,” Haidar said.  “Many of those senior citizens don’t get to see their family on a daily basis. Some of them don’t even have family. Bringing the kids over made them so much happier.”

Haidar said the students enjoyed the event as well, with the overall attitude being that they want to continue visiting senior citizen homes outside of the holidays. They will be visiting the same center on January 18.

“The kids were ecstatic,” Haidar said.  “The attention they received was great. They knew they were doing something that would make someone else happy, and that just made them happier.” 

Haidar, who has two children who attend Becker, said the PTA is now pushing for more arts and music programs across the district. Over the last decade, such programs had diminished. 

“Theater needs a lot of attention. It needs resources and money and we are ready to get the district to push these things,” Haidar said.  “Children at a young age feel like they want to fit in somewhere. What better way than to get these kids to communicate and collaborate with each other. Math and Science are very important, but at the same time you have to feed them with arts, music and theater. It’s a universal form of communication. There’s no language barrier.”