Harold Garman and Spence Limbocker: Creating Intergenerational Relationships

It resonated with Garman. The couple had recently moved to Asbury to be near their three children and six grandchildren, but the former minister was troubled by the recent killing of a young man at a bus stop across the street. He wasn’t sure how to help. “I couldn’t just go do a little bit myself and have it make any difference,” Garman says.

He wanted to join the downtown church’s efforts to help local youth, but he didn’t think he could regularly drive into the city. His wife posed a question: “Why don’t you start in our new neighborhood?”

Garman, who grew up on a fruit farm near Niagara Falls, New York, had planned to carry on the family’s agricultural business, but turned to the church instead. He earned a doctorate from the Boston University School of Theology. Martin Luther King Jr. had completed his own doctorate there five years earlier, and Garman was strongly influenced by the civil rights leader. He named the Gaithersburg Beloved Community Initiative in honor of King’s concept of “beloved community,” where equality, justice andunconditional love prevail.

In the fall of 2011, after listening to and engaging the low-income community about what type of initiative they wanted, Garman launched a weekly mentoring program with 12 volunteers and 12 students.

Growing impact

Seven years later, the mentoring program was going strong when Limbocker, a former Peace Corps volunteer who had spent his career working for nonprofit organizations and philanthropic causes, moved into Asbury and joined GBCI.

“It didn’t take very long to discover the talent that he had,” Garman says. Over the next few years, Limbocker helped develop GBCI’s strategic plan, board, volunteer recruitment initiatives and leadership development., as well as He helped the group apply for 501(c)(3) nonprofit status with the IRS.

Today, GBCI has two endowments, three full-time staff members, 12 part-time contractors, more than 160 Asbury volunteers and several high school student volunteers.

The mentoring program works in three local schools; to learn about government, for example, students might run an election between Mrs. Chocolate Chip and Mr. Oreo. During the school year GBCI runs weekly pre-K classes, English conversation practice for Latino mothers, a food delivery service and an intergenerational book club in which residents and students read graphic novels.

GBCI also teamed with parents in organizing the community to push the county council to build a new school. After a council meeting — attended by 400 people — the chair said, “ ‘This is the most pressure I have ever felt from constituents,’ ” Limbocker says. “That’s the kind of thing that we do.”

Limbocker and Garman say volunteers report that they feel healthier — they’ve got a purpose and new friends. Teenagers come and help their former mentors with tasks like gardening.

“I think the glue is the fact that it’s intergenerational. That’s the constant. That’s the success. Garman says.

The AARP Purpose Prize supports AARP’s mission by honoring extraordinary people age 50 and older who tap into the power of life experience to build a better future for us all. To read more about this year’s winners, click here.