HOLYOKE, Mass. (AP) - No matter the day of the week, the Holyoke Senior Center, is buzzing with activity, whether that’s band rehearsals, chair volleyball, a model train club with a replica track of the city of Holyoke or painting classes. At least 600 people visit the senior center every week to take classes, socialize with friends or to work out.
Senior Center leadership chalks up good attendance at events by saying they are offering people what they want.
“We keep an eye on trends and best practices, but the offerings at the senior center are mostly guided by the interests of our participants,” Holyoke Council on Aging (COA) Executive Director Navae Fenwick Rodriguez said. “Seniors bring us ideas, and we can help to make them happen.”
Denis Dion, an 80-year-old resident of Holyoke, and referee for the senior center’s weekly chair volleyball game, was setting up the court before a recent game. Volleyball was founded in Holyoke, but Dion said seniors in two teams consisting of 14 to 16 people don’t take the game too seriously. They play for fun.
“I got involved with it because it was fun and because I saw immediately the various types of exercises that it was giving people by getting up and sitting down and raising their arms to hit,” he explained. “But even more important was reaction. When the ball was coming at them, their reaction time improved.”
A game of chair volleyball is much the same as a typical volleyball game, except all participants on the two teams are sitting in chairs whether serving the ball or hitting it over the net to the other team.
“As long as the ball does not hit the floor, the ball is alive and you can keep hitting it until it goes over the net,” he explained. “And we also don’t play by the serving rule. In regular volleyball, in order to score the points you have to be serving. Here we don’t do that.”
For Dion, he’s impressed by the amount of activities and classes that are offered at the Holyoke Senior Center.
“I think it’s changed the onus of going to a senior center,” he added. “You have to be old to go to a senior center because there’s nothing going on. It’s for old people. Not anymore, I think because of the difference in varied activities.”
Susan Aiken, a 75-year-old Holyoke resident, was waiting for her turn to join the chair volleyball game that she plays every week at the center. She also volunteers running the senior center’s cafe and is the chairperson of the COA Board of Directors.
“I volunteer quite a bit between the cafe, the front desk, my time on the board,” she explained. “I’m involved with mostly everything that goes on. I was a nurse for 36 years and most of my time in the end was spent with the elderly. Of course, I don’t consider myself elderly. My son says, ‘Of course, Mom. You’re not elderly.’ But there’s elderly and then there’s elderly. I enjoy coming here and interacting with the other elders. It’s a lot of fun. We have a great variety of activities and you can do as much as you want or as little as you want.”
For COA Executive Director Rodriguez, working with people on a daily basis at the senior center is what she most enjoys about her job.
“I love working with people - understanding their motivations, listening to their concerns and helping to support their well being,” she explained. “Every day brings something different.”
Before the senior center moved into its current new $8 million building at 291 Pine Street seven years ago, it was located in the basement of the War Memorial Building, she noted.
“We are grateful that the city of Holyoke supported the building of the new senior center. Attendance has grown tremendously since our days in the basement of the War Memorial Building. The new facility has more space for activities and generally feels much more welcoming,” Rodriguez said.
More than 30 seniors rehearsed for the senior band, which was led by a conductor on the second floor in early February, while a group played pool outside the door, and two men played a game of cards. But just down the hall a handful of elder students were honing their water color painting skills.
Nancy Howard, who leads the painting class and a Friday Senior Sing group, said the class is open to newcomers and seasoned painters, but one of the stumbling blocks for students is learning how to draw.
“I try to make it an easier way than trying like you have to learn everything,” Howard explained. “Some books say a watercolor is 90 percent drawing and 10 percent color, but if you’re not comfortable drawing, there’s still ways to have fun with watercolor. We trace from a photograph, trace from another drawing, and study from books how great watercolorists put a picture together.”
Sister Frances White of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Springfield, 80, paused while drawing a flower to say that the class is part of a promise to fulfill a lifelong dream of creating watercolor art.
“I do love drawing and I’m getting into some of these things,” she said, adding that she’s been taking the class for about two weeks.
Meanwhile, at the other end of the room, 79-year-old Holyoke resident Przemek Dobrski, a retired architect originally from Poland who immigrated to the United States, also shares a passion for art, whether that’s watercolors or acrylic oil paintings.
Although he also has a home studio, Dobrski said the senior center is within walking distance from his home. He’s been stopping by the senior center mostly every week for the past three years to take part in classes.
“We really appreciate it because this senior center in Holyoke gives seniors many ideas for hobbies or entertainment,” he explained.
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