By Theodora Aggeles, Times Correspondent
Saturday, December 18, 2010
Clockwise from left, Penny Kunse, Jonathan Cisneros, Erin Leonard, Ishan Mandani and Ken Harrison watch as Alba Masterson reacts to gifts.
EAST LAKE — Chase Mallory could spend every Saturday at the beach or hanging out with friends. Instead, he has spent part of every weekend for six weeks with a man old enough to be his great-grandfather.
Jack Smith, 87, couldn't be happier with the arrangement. Smith stays active at the Allegro East Lake assisted living facility, but after his wife of 64 years died last year, he missed talking with someone. Then Chase came along.
"I'd get lonely sometimes," Smith said. "When Chase comes to visit, we sit and talk or watch football together."
Chase visits Smith as part of a program called Grand Kids, which formed in 2009 under the nonprofit group Our Aim Foundation by Dunedin ...