My name is Esther Johnson. I live in Erving and I use the Greenfield Senior Center. I lived in Greenfield for 30 years and five years ago I moved to Erving. My friends are in Greenfield and that’s why I use the Greenfield Center instead of the Erving Senior Center.
I’ve been listening to everyone’s point of view, and I’m tired of being told by people who are looking in from the outside that the Senior Center is empty. We are making the best of its less than ideal design.
The staff has been criticized, but our experience is that they have been responsive and helpful to us as we need them. They can’t be available at everyone’s beck and call. There are times we have to wait for them to be available. Don’t you make an appointment to talk with your counselor, attorney, doctor or other professional? They have work to do other than give a tour. The volunteers at the front desk are there to help answer questions and explain the workings of the Senior Center. They can help you become a member and sign up for classes.
There are over 2,000 seniors that use the center.
When you walk in the front door, we all, at first, are given the impression of a large empty unused Senior Center. The lobby houses registration, coffee area, computers available for patron use, library, greeting cards available for sale, jigsaw puzzle for drop-in, magazines and newspapers for daily reading and conversation groupings for seniors to sit and talk. This area also serves as overflow for cribbage, mahjongg and other scheduled activities that are preempted from the large room because another program is running that requires more space.
The large meeting room is used for many different programs and many times is shared by multiple smaller groups at the same time.
I teach mahjongg on Monday afternoons. Eight people learned and became regular attending members. We have another six people that want to learn and we will begin another set of classes in September. Please consider joining our activities. Also, on Monday a bridge group meets. They are always looking for players. Both groups meet at 1:00. The center provides the game sets necessary to play these games as well as others.
This brings me to the Community Center part of the name. When the non-senior community has used the new building the piano was broken, a practice set of mahjongg tiles and racks were stolen, a mahjongg case was removed from the cart and dropped breaking the case hinges, the cribbage cards were opened and disbursed.
Locking up our materials was never an idea we had to deal with in our old building. Now they are locked in the administrator’s office to prevent this from happening again. Regulations and budgeting weren’t developed before this joint venture was developed. Something like this can’t happen in a vacuum.
There are scheduled exercise classes every day of the week for different levels of physical ability. There are also planned activities and games every day of the week and now there are planned meals scheduled during the month. The Senior Center tries to meet the different needs of the population within Greenfield.
There are three other smaller rooms, which are less obvious, that are used for programs including movies, pool, chair massage, book chat, foot care, theater discussion, creative writing, etc. Take the time and go out to this website “http://greenfield-ma.gov/p/536/Council-on-aging–Senior-Center” Click on “Senior News” or pick up a copy of the monthly newsletter at the front desk.. Here you can see all the activities that go on during a month. These activities are open to all persons 55 and over that become free members. It only takes a few minutes to complete the application process, but it needs to be done before you can participate in an activity.
A community center would make more sense in the new library after it is built than in the Senior Center. At times I hear the remark. “Erving has a combined Senior Center and Community Center.” Yes, it does. I live in Erving. When the town uses it, it is after the Senior Center is closed and on weekends. Many of the Community events are held in the auditorium at the Elementary School. All community events in both buildings are held after regular hours.
The Senior Center is not underused. It is already too small for all the programs we are trying to run. The majority of the people working at the center are either volunteers or funded by grants that are being written by staff members or volunteers at the Greenfield Senior Center. Programs are funded through grants or donations.
Esther Johnson is a resident of Erving.