Publication of Yangcheon-gu Village Community Casebook 'Together Drawing Yangcheon Story'

Please Dress the Trees in Winter Clothes Too. 'Tteuge Nanum - Songil'

[Asia Economy Reporter Jong-il Park] The phrase "What can grandmothers over 80 do?" should probably be set aside for now.

In the knitting club "Son-gil" of the senior community "Sinwol Senior Participation Sharing Center" in Sinwol 3-dong, among the 24 members with an average age of 78, there are three grandmothers over 90 years old.

Chairperson No Jeong-ja smiled and said, "The primary goal of the group is 'to stay healthy,' and only when you are over 90 do you get treated as an elder."

The seniors, who have been volunteering in various ways through knitting, such as donating the proceeds from selling handmade scrubbers to support local children, started a new challenge in the summer of 2019.

They began making winter clothes to protect trees during the cold season, using leftover sock yarn, a waste material from making socks, with environmental considerations in mind. Learning a new method of weaving round sock yarn loops with fingers, without wooden knitting needles, on a thick, bracelet-like unique material was not easy.

Grandmother Seo Myeong-seok said, "We started knitting the tree clothes in summer and personally dressed 38 trees in the Nambu and Gyeongin Children's Parks, which many children visit, even attaching name tags. It feels rewarding and fulfilling every time I see them on my way. I hope that when warm spring comes and we take off the tree clothes to collect them, the bugs will disappear with them, reducing the number of bugs in the playground."

In Sinwol 2-dong, "Our Alley Made Together" began as a volunteer group formed by parents who met through their children and shared hobbies or self-help meetings. It has developed into a village community activity aimed at creating a neighborhood full of warmth. They transformed a bleak concrete parking lot into a warm space with children's drawings and shared food with neighbors through "Alley Table," and held "Guerrilla Concerts" with local elders, becoming a community where various generations come together. Recently, they won the grand prize in the village community category at the 2nd Hankyoreh-SH Happy Nest Story Contest.

Gathering these cases, Yangcheon-gu (Mayor Kim Soo-young) published the Yangcheon Village Community Casebook "Together Drawing the Yangcheon Story" to widely share "the value and joy of walking together."

Kim Soo-young, Mayor of Yangcheon-gu, stated, "Through 'Together Drawing the Yangcheon Story,' which honestly compiles not only the happy stories of those who have been together in the village community throughout 2019 but also the difficulties and hardships, I hope to foster residents' understanding and active participation in the village community and strengthen Yangcheon's community capabilities through information sharing among village project leaders."