“Just as each snowflake is unique, so is each life and each story,” said Fountain Hills High School English teacher Dawn Oester.

“Today, we’re honored to share those stories with you.”

Oester was addressing a classroom full of people who were divided by nearly a century’s worth of history. Packed into the FHHS classroom were the participants of the most recent Storied Lives program, established to bridge the generation gap between youngsters and senior citizens.

This was actually the second iteration of the local project, spearheaded by Oester, Storied Lives Program Coordinator Teri Larson, Storied Lives Regional Advisor Patti Milligan and Storied Lives Student Program Leader Katie McErlean.

Since the summer 2015 iteration of Storied Lives was such a success, these women decided to introduce the program into the local classroom.

Oester and her students visited Fountain View Village earlier this semester, where the students were introduced to residents they would be partnered with.

The object of the project is simple: Get to know each other. And in order to sharpen their listening, writing and speaking skills, the students were tasked with capturing their partner’s stories in words before sharing it with the group at the closing ceremony hosted on the FHHS campus on Dec. 16.

It was at this event where Oester shared her brief message about how special each and every life is.

Students in attendance included Emerson O’Neil, Marie Buettner, Caterna Splete, Amber Bearden, Katie McErlean, Bruce Ferguson, Simon Edwards, Alyssa Rolfe, Jonathan Goure, Harley Wince, Xavier Lopez, Adam Derr, Gabriel Anderson, Austin McCarty and Megan Donnelly.

Joining them at the tables were their senior citizens and new friends, Phyllis Smart, Lois Davidson, Dorothy Beutler, Opal Thompson, Thelma Comstock, Tom Kokesh, Walter Martin, Bobby VanWaes, Jim Richardson, Harriet Kamins, Jean McLaughlin, Gordon Riehl, George Wilen, Barney Barnett and both Joan and Russ Larson.

Over the past several months, students met with their Fountain View friends and listened to them tell their story. Despite all that time they had spent together, the room was buzzing with laughter and murmuring voices as the partners continued to catch up on recent events.

What followed were 15 tales that summed up the lives of these men and women, spoken by the students who committed them to memory and paper.

Throughout the morning, folks learned about Phyllis Smart, who accepted a ride along with her sister from a strange man because “back in the ‘40s, people were more trusting.” Emerson O’Neil shared this particular story, letting the audience know that Smart also prefers rainy days to sunshine and Thanksgiving over Christmas.

Simon Edwards took a unique approach to his story, telling the life of Walter Martin in the first-person.

Katie McErlean shared Thelma Comstock’s all-important three F’s, which are family, faith and friends. From Bobby VanWaes, Alyssa Rolfe learned to “say yes to life.”

There were also plenty of humorous tales, including Harley Wince’s recounting of Harriet Kamin’s budding romance with her husband-to-be. The man had promised himself that he’d “never date a girl from Brooklyn,” a promise he soon broke.

And then there was Xavier Lopez, who couldn’t stop smiling while telling the story of Jean McLaughlin.

The Storied Lives project did its job of bridging the generation gap once again, something soon-to-be retired Oester said she was happy to watch unfold before her.

“The fun thing was that I got to see the project in progress this time,” Oester said.

“I got to hear the kids talk about their partners, see them excited to go work with them and then hear them say, ‘Do you know what my partner told me now?’”

Each of these stories was different, but they also achieved a common goal: They created uncommon friendships and a lifetime’s worth of lessons that each of the students were happy to share and, with a little luck, maybe even live by.