Most days, the town square-style hallways of the Brookdale Clare Bridge Alzheimer’s community in northeast Bend are quiet.

But every Wednesday morning, the facility buzzes with young voices as residents come out of their rooms to join Pilot Butte Middle School sixth-graders for a game of catch, an art project or just a quick conversation. It’s a tradition that teacher Lauri Peters started three years ago, after she read “Petey,” a young adult novel that details the friendship between a young boy and an elderly man with cerebral palsy.

Once a week, Peters leads about 40 students on the approximately one-mile walk from the school to Clare Bridge, where she said they’ve developed friendships with residents and a lasting appreciation for helping others.

Ryan Nelson, 12, said he spends most of his time at the facility with one resident, who he pushes through the halls in a wheelchair. Ryan said the classroom volunteering has inspired him to volunteer on his own time; last year, he even came in to visit the residents on Christmas Day.

“When I first came here, I didn’t know what it would be like — I thought they would forget everything, forget everybody,” he said. “Some people might think that people with Alzheimer’s are really scary, but they aren’t.”

Though all of the facility’s residents suffer from Alzheimer’s or dementia, several students said they’ve been surprised to find that their new friends do sometimes remember them or details of their visits.

In the facility’s main lobby area, some students sat at tables with residents, playing cards or drawing pictures with markers. Others, including Donald Thornton, 12, followed their new friends around the building for adventures of their own. Donald said his favorite resident, a retired professor, often leads students on “missions” around the facility, pretending they’ve been sent to exotic destinations.

“My guy really likes to walk around,” he said, smiling. “He says we’re going to Alaska or New Mexico or Canada, and it’s just really fun to watch him do it.”

Before the students’ first visit last fall, Peters invited Clare Bridge staff members to speak in the classroom. She also integrated information about Alzheimer’s disease and dementia into regular lessons.

Lisa Sylvester, 12, said she was unsure at first about spending time with the residents but now looks forward to Wednesday morning every week.

“It’s nice to see the smiles on everybody’s faces,” she said. “Since we come over here every week, we get to bond, and we do a lot of nice stuff for them.”

Peters said many of the students now visit the residents regularly, after school and on weekends. Some have formed strong bonds with residents and have already had to learn hard lessons about aging and loss. Doe Badley, the facility’s life enrichment coordinator, said 11 residents died over the winter. Peters said some students are still grieving over the loss.

“The compassion they have is amazing,” Peters said. “They’ve got a whole new appreciation for life … it’s a lesson I can’t teach in the classroom.”

And for the residents, the weekly visits are a much-needed chance to interact with new people and keep active, if only for a short time. As the students filtered out of the building on Wednesday, resident Ruth Zitnik, 88, laughed and waved goodbye.

“They have fun and they’re very proud of us,” she said. “They’ve always been very good to us, and they’re happy about that.”