As seniors shuffled into the Expo Arts Center on Tuesday for another morning session of tai chi, one of the program’s members, Winifred Carter, 97, welcomed and greeted them at her receptionist table as they signed in.
“We try to make them feel comfortable,” said Carter, who said she always tries to put a smile on people’s faces as they walk through the door. “It’s their home away from home. Some of the seniors don’t have anything to do and nowhere to go, and this is a place for them to come and enjoy themselves.”
Oct. 15 marks one year since the 8th council district and the Senior Advisory Committee (SAC) launched senior programming activities at the center. Every Tuesday and Thursday, the program offers a variety of exercise classes, guest speakers, arts and crafts and knitting, which is a class Carter teaches called “Knitting with Wini.”
The residents who frequently attend the sessions have developed a familial bond, according to those involved with the program. The program averages 50 to 60 people every day, and sometimes more, Carter said.
“It’s like a social senior center,” she said. “Everyone is happy here,” before quickly interrupting herself as someone else walked through the door. “Patrick, aren’t you happy here?”
“I am,” Patrick answered earnestly. She couldn’t help but laugh.
Carter, Gwendolyn Hill and Barbara Shoag are all part of the SAC who took one to two years to get the program off the ground, they say. Hill explained that Councilmember Al Austin sent a letter to her home asking her to volunteer.
In the mornings, Hill neatly assembles chairs in the middle of the room and prepares the area for all the activities. On Tuesday, it was tai chi, led by instructor Larry Kessler, who was subbing for Elizabeth Preston. Hill is tasked with giving out announcements and heating water for tea or coffee, which is the seniors’ favorite.
Shoag affectionately called Hill the “glue that holds all of this together.” She said Hill stays the entire session on both days from 9am to 2pm and often stays longer to clean the space. She also transports Carter to and from the Expo Arts Center.
Hill insists it’s all part of everybody’s role in the little community they have developed at the Expo Arts Center.
“I do what I need to do,” she said. “It’s not just me, it’s everybody. We’re all a part of this.”
[aesop_image imgwidth=”250px” img=”http://www.signaltribunenewspaper.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/10/Screen-Shot-2016-10-13-at-4.03.30-PM.png” credit=”File photo” align=”right” lightbox=”on” caption=”Eighth District Senior Advisory Committee members (front row, from left) Gwendolyn Hill, Winifred Carter and Barbara Shoag with (back row, from left) Councilmember Al Austin and Police Chief Robert Luna at a senior town hall on fraud prevention last August. Hill, Carter and Shoag are one of the original members of the senior advisory committee who assisted in starting the senior programming activities at the Expo Arts Center last October. ” captionposition=”right”] The social aspect of the program has allowed many residents to bond with one another, Hill said. For her, many of the seniors now know her interests and personality pretty well. For instance, they know Hill is quite the fan of lumpia, a Filipino egg roll.
“They bring them to me all the time, and I eat all of them,” she joked. “Once you get to know a person, you feel at ease. You feel comfortable. And, if you know something is wrong, you can go to that person… It’s like a family now.”
She detailed how one woman would attend the program and just sit. Her caregiver got her interested in joining in, and she loved it, Hill said.
“’Otherwise, I wouldn’t have anything to do,'” Hill recounted the woman’s words. She died in February of this year, but the social interaction and the bonds that are developed make the event worthwhile, Hill said.
Hill recounted another story of a woman whose husband died in August. She attends the program and plays Scrabble with only one other lady during her time there.
“Nobody else plays with them because they just want to play with each other,” she said. “And she’s gotten that little lady out of her box. She won’t stay home. She’ll come here for an hour or two hours and play Scrabble with her.”
Around noon, seniors are served hot lunches, donated by the nonprofit Women in Action Reaching Out. A recycling program, helmed by Donna Bergeron-Birge, secretary of the SAC, encourages seniors to bring recyclables from home.
Bergeron-Birge said that, after lunch, everybody sorts their trash in plastic and waste piles.
The program raises about $30 a week and funds some arts-and-craft supplies and coffee.
“For me, that is a huge accomplishment,” she said, “just to know that they know what to do with their trash and the waste-management problem.”
Bergeron-Birge said the seniors really get engaged with arts and crafts and puzzles. The game Rummikub is a particular favorite with the group.
Senior residents have become more involved and given a sense of purpose, Bergeron-Birge added. She said “they laugh and cry and tell stories,” and that social context adds to the older residents’ self-worth.
“They retire or they’re home alone, and I think they lose that sense of value,” she said. “By coming here and contributing and even helping in the smallest way, even if it’s just filling the water containers for paint or helping clean up or bringing a bag of beads for jewelry, those kinds of things give them a sense of value and purpose… People just wither away without that.”
The first-anniversary October feast celebration in honor of the senior programming at the Expo Arts Center, 4321 Atlantic Ave, will be Saturday, Oct. 15 from 5:30pm to 9pm. For more information, call (562) 570-1326 or email district8@longbeach.gov.
Visit the senior programming’s GoFund me page at gofundme.com/gvkhzzje or visit its official page for more information at longbeach.gov/District8/News/Senior-Programming-at-the-Expo!.
