Senior center closed? Meet up in the parking lot!

#Middlebury #Seniors

Is your senior center still closed? Most of them are, which means that we haven’t experienced our typical routines for a very long time.

Mostly it’s the social aspect we miss. A show of hands: How many of us, if given the opportunity, would show up at the senior center for an in-person gathering even if it was held outside? In the parking lot?

It’s being done in some parts of the country, even in cold weather, so it’s possible if those who run your senior center are willing to do the work of spacing chairs 6 feet apart and making coffee in thermoses so it stays hot and pushing around a trolley of cookies.

With spring officially here, chances are that if you and others approach the staff of the senior center to express interest, social gatherings like these could be made to happen. An hour once a week would go a long way toward reconnecting with friends and checking in with others to see – in person – how they’re really doing.

Besides the loss of social interaction, it’s the classes many of us miss: budgeting for living on Social Security, cooking for one, journaling … and especially the hands-on classes about electronic devices. Those device classes are the very classes we need now that could help us to interact with others on video calls.

To their credit, some senior centers have figured out that, if nothing else, they can show video exercise classes we can follow from home. And many of them have stepped forward with volunteers who can help get us signed up online to get the COVID vaccine.

From what I hear, though, it’s the in-person social interactions that we seniors miss the most. Even a once-a-week gathering, in a parking lot, would be very welcome.

© 2021 King Features Synd., Inc.