Trekking to the hidden city of Machu Picchu in Peru, fighting sandstorms and grasshopper infestations on the northern plains of Nebraska, grooming and costuming horses to march in the Rose Bowl Parade -- these are the real-life stories of people living at the Village Shores Senior Campus in Richfield.

One class of creative writing students is taking advantage of this material to add rich detail and texture to their fictional narratives.

Pairing seniors with a creative writing class was the brainchild of Katie Mader, an instructor at the Minnesota School of Business, who is also getting her own Master of Fine Arts degree in creative writing from Hamline University.

"I used a story my grandfather told me about World War II in a fiction piece one time, and it really helped to build our relationship -- and it was great for the work, too," she said.

At the beginning of this semester, Mader asked students in her creative writing class if they would be willing to try the same approach.

"I told them, 'I'm really excited about this, and I think it could work, but if you're not on board, then we'll do something else.' "

The students embraced the concept, so Mader -- with help from Program Director Jennifer Draper at Village Shores -- paired her students with senior volunteers based on interests and personalities.

Most of the student-senior pairs hit it off right away, including Bob Rose, 75, and Chase Buntgen, 21, who share a love of hunting and fishing and other kinds of "guy stuff," Rose said with a chuckle.

Based on a series of interviews with Rose over three weeks, Buntgen is crafting a fictional story about a man's relationship to his favorite horse, Pete, who in the end gets cancer and must be put down.

"Part of the story takes place in the mid-1980s, which is a little strange for me, since I was born in 1988," said Buntgen.

Marcos Juarez, 20, is writing a love story about a nurse at the University of Illinois who has a riveting affair with a patient. The inspiration was a story Gwen Carlson, 89, told him about a short-lived dalliance she had with a patient who had a degenerative bone disorder.

Bridging the generations

Juarez grew up in Eagan and wants to be a digital video editor. Carlson grew up being moved from place to place as the daughter of a preacher.

Despite their age differences and diverse life stories, Carlson and Juarez have found common ground.

"We both have January birthdays," said Juarez.

"And we both have worked at summer camps," added Carlson.

Jaymes Ross, 18, admits that he was nervous before meeting his 87-year-old muse, Jerry Nauss.

"I don't really talk to older generation people," Ross said. But the two hit it off right away, swapping stories about growing up in Minnesota.

Ross is placing his fictional narrative in the 1940s to take advantage of Nauss' treasure-trove of experiences from the years when he fought in five separate campaigns during World War II.

Now comes the hard part: letting the artist have his creative license.

"In the rough draft, I can tell the protagonist has some issues with his mother, which wasn't really true," said Nauss. "But that's fiction, right?"

Alyssa Ford is a Minneapolis freelance writer.