Fireworks erupted in the distance beneath the not-quite-full moon when the Dartmouth Council on Aging seniors, all dressed in pink for Breast Cancer Awareness, attended a Friday night high school football game on Oct. 18.

The event was organized after Council on Aging Director Amy DiPietro had a conversation with Dartmouth Superintendent June Saba-Maguire about forging connections between the “school age children and older adults” in the community, DiPietro said.

“We’re really thinking about how we can make intergenerational connections,” said Dartmouth Superintendent June Saba-Maguire.

“We’re here to support the next generation,” DiPietro said.

The seniors from the Council on Aging are supporting the seniors from the Dartmouth High School, said Mary Moble, one of the Council on Aging seniors.

“Time goes by so fast,” DiPietro said. “It’s like the blink of an eye.”

Several of the seniors hadn’t been back to the Dartmouth Memorial Stadium since graduating from high school, including Carolyn Gifford and Mary Jonhey.

DiPietro said that one of her favorite parts of the game was “just sitting and listening to the stories of their high school days.”

Jonhey used to go to every football game, both home and away, when she was in high school.

Being back at the stadium among all the players, the cheerleaders and the marching band kids, “makes you feel younger,” she said.

“The kids are so respectful and it’s just so much fun,” said Gifford, who hadn’t been back to the stadium “since I went to school here.”

“I forgot how much fun it is,” she added.

Jonhey is a substitute teacher at the high school, so she wanted to attend the game to see the students she helps teach, she said.

“I’m totally in awe of our young people,” she added.

Saba-Maguire spoke with the Athletic Director Andrew Crisafulli, high school principal Ryan Shea, and DiPietro to organize the events between the high school students and the Council on Aging seniors.

“We want to make something that’s just a regular part of what we do,” she said.

The Dartmouth Public School district is looking for ways to strengthen the connections between the students and the community “beyond the school” as part of its district strategic plan that recently passed, Saba-Maguire said.

“I mean, look at all the people that are here tonight,” she said. “It’s just such a nice community.”

Last year, in what was one of the first events between the Council on Aging and the high school,  the Council on Aging invited the cheerleaders to participate in a line dance class.

“They had such a good time, both the seniors and the cheerleaders,” Saba-Maguire said.

This year the cheerleaders were going to teach the Council on Aging seniors a cheer that they could do at the Friday, Oct. 18 game so they could “do a cheer with them” but there weren’t enough seniors “interested in getting out on the field,” DiPietro said.

“Next year,” she added, and Gifford and Jonhey agreed.