High School Students Bond With Seniors Over Board Games - Inspirational Videos

A group of high school students in New York City every week spend time visiting, chatting and playing board games with seniors in assisted living facilities.

The world can often be a sad, lonely and heartbreaking place. Some individuals may be dealing with feelings of extreme loneliness, believing they have no one to talk to or turn to when life gets rough. It’s for that reason simple, unexpected acts of kindness like holding the door for someone or something similar can make all the difference.

A clip posted on YouTube shows how 60 concerned and caring students in New York City are working to make the world a little less lonely. The students visit nursing facilities where they talk to the residents and even play games like Scrabble and Chess with them. 

But when it comes to games, it’s not about winning or losing but about the connections and the bonds made during those visits. 

“Sometimes we don’t play any board games at all, we just have conversations,” 17-year-old Max Hochman said. “So, it’s really about the connection. We’re so pleased to be learning from the residents at these homes.”

But, amazingly, this was not a program that was started by a school administrator or even by someone who works at one of the facilities the students visit weekly. Instead, it was thought up by one of the students involved in the program.

The program started as an idea from Max Hochman during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“I started thinking about it during the COVID-19 pandemic when I heard about how my grandfather was kind of feeling lonely,” Max said. “I decided to just pick up the phone one day and call him and ask him to play Chess online with me.”

Max saw how this simple act made a huge difference.

“I saw how that, like, really improved his mood,” the youngster said. “I thought, like, ‘How could I bring this to my community, NYC?’”

Deuteronomy 31:6 “Be strong and take heart and have no fear of them: for it is the Lord your God who is going with you; he will not take away his help from you.”