HANOVER — David Millstone and Sheila Moran were looking for connections when the couple started attending Memory Cafe programs at the Howe Library in Hanover last August.

The gatherings bring Millstone and Moran, who was diagnosed with mild cognitive impairment in November 2020, together with other people with memory disorders and their care partners.

“People are able to offer a supportive ear and some tips, and to know you’re not alone,” Millstone, 78, of Lebanon, said in a phone interview.

Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Memory Cafes led by Dartmouth Health’s Aging Resource Center tended to meet monthly and were widely popular, recalled Ellen Flaherty, vice president of Dartmouth Health’s Geriatric Center of Excellence. For about a decade, Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth students had assisted with the gatherings, which often involve games, crafts, music and snacks.

The program paused in March 2020 and was on hiatus for about four years until last year when Geisel students decided to take the lead in bringing it back.

The Memory Cafes are free and meet monthly on Saturdays from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Howe Library in Hanover. Upcoming events are May 10, June 14, July 12 and Aug. 16.

The prompting of Dr. Roshini Pinto-Powell, a professor at Geisel, inspired Fares Awa, now a third-year medical student, to get the program up and running again.

Awa reached out to his classmate Stefano Rozental, who was equally interested: He witnessed his mother care for family members who died from dementia-related conditions.

“I think seeing how little access my family had to community support and how tremendously that impacted them and kind of kept everything very unclear and mystified was ... a pretty strong experience,” Rozental said during a group interview that also included Awa and Pinto-Powell.

The two students decided to apply for a Dartmouth community service-learning grant to help get them started, including paying for materials used in activities such as ring toss games.

The leadership change has been “so awesome,” Flaherty said.

In the year since the programs restarted, about a dozen pairs have become regulars, Tina Ward, dementia program specialist at Dartmouth Health’s Geriatric Center of Excellence, said. The students are equally committed, and there is a core group of about 10 who regularly attend Memory Cafes, leading them to develop relationships with people with memory disorders and their care partners alike.

“When people are in a room and you can’t really tell who’s a caregiver and who’s not, that brings a lot of joy and a lot of really amazing energy to the group,” Rozental said.

There have been some adjustments along the way: For example, the group started out offering chair yoga and chair exercises, then adjusted to more game-based physical activities such as chair hockey and chair volleyball, after hearing feedback from participants.

“I really like the ‘volleyball’ that we play sometimes,” Moran wrote in an email that was dictated to Millstone. “It’s physically active. It’s not hard for me at all. I always sit in the front row and I try to help other people by sending the balloon to them.”

Moran appreciates that there are separate activities for Millstone.

“I like it that my partner has a time to talk with other caregivers,” she wrote.

The students have created a “caregiver corner” where care partners have a chance to visit with each other and get information about resources, while their loved ones work on activities with volunteers. That’s something Flaherty and Ward are particularly excited about.

“There is a really cool interaction that happens between the caregivers and the students,” Ward said. “And I would say this particular (student) group is more dedicated than I’ve ever seen.”

While Millstone and Moran regularly participate in memory disorder-related programs offered by the Aging Resource Center, they said the students’ participation in Memory Cafes makes the gatherings even more special.

“For us, hanging out with a bunch of smart people in their early 20s is fun,” Millstone said about the students’ involvement. “We enjoy hearing about them; encouraging them in their studies.”

As medical students, Awa and Rozental often interact with patients in a clinical setting where they’re treated by multiple doctors that are part of a multi-disciplinary team to provide care.

“You think: ‘Oh, they have a good safety net around them,’ ” Awa said.

Awa’s perspective has shifted in the nearly year he has helped lead the Memory Cafe programs.

“It’s a completely different experience, I think, to interact with patients outside of a clinical space,” he said, noting that for some participants the Memory Cafes are their social outings for the month.

Pinto-Powell described the lessons Memory Cafe offers as the “hidden curriculum in medicine” that students don’t experience until they’re out of the classroom.

“This sort of program allows you to see that frontline early so that you understand that your advice that you give patients in your clinical office has to have some reality check to it,” Pinto-Powell said. “This is such a valuable lived experience for the students.”

Awa recalled including a collection of respite care centers in a resource list for care partners. A Memory Cafe participant mentioned they had looked over the list and couldn’t find a respite center within 100 miles that accepted their insurance, a piece of feedback that stood out to Awa.

“That’s really hard because you’re trying to refer people out to get help and then the help really isn’t there,” he said.

The lack of ready access to other support for people and families struggling with memory disorders makes Memory Cafes even more important to participants. Moran and Millstone plan on continuing to attend the programs.

“I like seeing people and I also recognize that it’s good for my husband,” Moran said. “I know I have dementia but I feel like I’m one of the ‘junior ones.’ I’m happy when I’m there.”

For more information, visit dartmouth-hitchcock.org/aging-resource-center, email dementiaresources@hitchcock.org or call 603-653-3484.

Liz Sauchelli can be reached at esauchelli@vnews.com or 603-727-3221.