Kimberly Wipfler Photo
After two years of keeping in touch through lunch dates, friends Sarah McClain and Annie Meyers returned to the Dixwell/Newhallville Senior Center — in its modern new home — ready to get back into classes, day trip outings, and bingo.
Sarah McClain (left) and Annie Meyers
Mayor Justin Elicker and Elderly Services Acting Director Tomi Veale showed up, too, to welcome people back to center, now located at the at the recently rebuilt Dixwell Community Center (Q House) located at 197 Dixwell Ave.
All three city-operated senior centers – located in Atwater, Dixwell / Newhallville and the East Shore – have reopened to the public three days per week (Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays) after an extended pandemic shutdown.
McClain and Meyers said they’re excited to reconnect with friends they haven’t seen in years, and to take new classes that will be offered at the facility, like sewing and yoga.
Back on board: Elsa Edmonds plays dominoes friends at reopened Dixwell/Newhallville senior center.
The new space for the senior center was flooded with bright sunlight on Monday morning, as elderly community members sat around wooden tables playing dominoes and rummy. Some, like Elsa Edmonds, snacked on piles of chocolate candies: Hershey’s kisses, Reese’s peanut butter cups, Kit-Kats.
In advance of the 11:30 lunch hour, newcomer Reginald Jones offered a prayer. Rosa White, who is McClain’s mother, sang the gospel hymn “One More Time.”
Addressing the crowd, Mayor Elicker said the last time he saw White was when they were down the street at the previous facility for the Dixwell / Newhallville senior center, in a basement. He said the new environment offers the respect and dignity that seniors have earned.
“This looks a little bit different, doesn’t it?” he said, to “yeah“s and “mhm“s.
Rosa White with Mayor Elicker.
Mayor Elicker spoke of a new vision for the senior centers: one that focuses on respect for the elderly and honors the wisdom they hold through facilitating mentor relationships with the youth. He said the location at the Q House will help usher in this new era, to intermix the senior center with the youth center and library at the same complex, to create a community where people of all ages can engage, support, and teach one another.
Monday also marked the first day on the job for Elderly Services Director Veale, who was appointed to the role just last month. She expressed gratitude for the loving welcome she received and excitement to learn about rummy and dominos.
Prior to this role, Veale worked for 13 years in the city youth services department. She said her experience there will help her facilitate that budding relationship between the youth and elderly programming.
Department of Elderly Services Director Tomi Veale.
“Today looks like a fresh start. This is motivation for us to make sure that we continue engaging our elderly. They have spoken. They want to see each other. They want to do activities. They’re excited for the activities that they have already engaged in. And it’s our responsibility to make sure that they still have access to most things,” Veale said.
Veale echoed Elicker’s sentiment of engaging with the community outside of the senior center walls, with an emphasis on having greater visibility in the community to bring new faces in the door.
“We can try and get to the place where we are today, and that’s being amongst in each other in a safe environment, a loving environment, and a caring one. This is what a community looks like in this room, and we can bring this outside,” said Veale.
It is wonderful that the senior centers have reopened. And fostering ties with senior and youth programming at the centers is a great way to create intergenerational community ties and increase the number of people who care and look after the old and young folks who often are in need of more people to look out for them and care for them.
I wish there was a senior and youth center on the West side of town, between the West Rock, West Hills and Beaver Hills neighborhoods. There isn’t much in the way of community centers for the young or old to do things in those neighborhoods for lower income folks.