The Seniors' Writing Workshops
The first workshop focused on what makes an interesting heritage tale and how to research it, with presentations by members of the local heritage association.

In the second workshop, participants interpreted the gathered historical material and drafted their stories with presentation (live and recorded) in mind. Mentors were available between workshops for one-on-one sessions with the participating seniors. Between them, mentors provided support for:

• understanding what tools are available – both online and within the community – for researching local history;
• using different approaches for transposing stories created from an idea, article, song, court record, municipal archive into a narrative tale for audio or video recording;
• using writing techniques to create drama within a story, and knowing what material to keep and what to cut.

The third workshop continued with coaching and short presentations to the group. Each workshop participant read their draft story aloud so that all could discuss how it might be developed and further improved.

This process continued through the fourth and final workshop, with mentors working alongside individual writers to turn stories, poems, journal or diary entries, and other forms of expression into scripted skits for performance.

Some of the writers and workshop mentors

Youth, seniors, and contributing artists attend the launch of the historical vignettes at Fairbairn House

• Read the River Valley Rendezvous Scripts
• Press coverage of the seniors' writing project
  

The script of A Bridge to the Past was based on the original contributions and editing of local seniors Sally Swan, John Hardie, John Michie, Walter Last, Brooke Broadbent, Brooke Gibson, Kerstin Petersson, Robert Rooney, and Ian Tamblyn.