Every month the kids at Afton-Lakeland Elementary await for special visitors. Senior citizens give their time to help teach elementary students cribbage. Cribbage is used to help to the young students learn mathematics. Cribbage brings together two different generations and helps develop relationships in the St. Croix Valley.

Ten years ago, Sue Schultz, program manager at the Bayport Senior Center, and Rachel Klancher, a fouth/fifth grade Express teacher at Afton-Lakeland Elementary, thought of the idea to bring in seniors to play cribbage with the kids. From 2004, the program has grown to other elementary schools around the district, to Rutherford and Anderson Elementary schools.

During the first couple visits, the students began to learn how to play the game of cribbage, but soon it turns into a competitive, yet engaging game between the senior and the elementary student.

“It’s really about giving back to the community. The volunteers love it, and the kids are having fun. But deep down they’re learning math and increasing their socialization skills,” said Schultz.

Klancher was the one to really bring the cribbage into the classroom and use it to help teach the students math.

“The seniors weren’t that into it, so I waited awhile and then approached Rachel Klancher, about starting something in Afton-Lakeland, and they asked if I had thought about cribbage,” Schultz said.

The kids sometimes forget that the cribbage playing was intended to help them learn math.

“The kids are so excited when their cribbage friends come to visit,” said Stacy Maddox, Rutherford Elementary teacher. “I told them once that this will really help with their math skills and one of the kids said, ‘No way. This is too much fun to be math.’”

The cribbage helps build the bridges in the community between the kids and seniors.

“One of the seniors told a story earlier this year,” Schultz said. “They had a student run up to them at the grocery store, and the mother was worried because she thought her kid was running toward a random stranger, but the child introduced the senior to their mother.”

The cribbage program has grown over the past ten years, and it isn’t going to be ending anytime soon. Everyone involved in the program love what they are doing and it is just another thing strengthening and connecting the St. Croix Valley.