ERVING — More than a year after the COVID-19 pandemic forced the facility’s closure, the Erving Senior and Community Center has reopened its doors.
The center initially faced a “mandatory closing” in March 2020, and stayed closed until July 7. In the meantime, however, the staff had been far from dormant, continuing to provide the elderly community with special events and services. With the facility once again fully operational, the staff aims to breathe fresh energy through its halls.
The pandemic “really affected everything,” said Erving Senior and Community Center Director Paula Betters. “It was a mandatory closing, but we actually came back with no one here.”
Betters, along with her husband, Gary, and the center’s Community Outreach Officer Becky Paciorek, carried out a variety of different initiatives to serve local seniors. One such effort was the “Erving Bearing Gifts” event intended to promote wellness and curb feelings of pandemic-perpetuated loneliness. Starting March 5, the Senior and Community Center individually surveyed people, asking about their mental health as well as preferences for items like sweets and beverages. By June 30, Betters had custom-made each senior a gift basket — 82 in total, she said — in accordance with their likings, shopping with the aid of $4,000 in grant money from the Massachusetts Councils on Aging.
“We were looking like a warehouse out there,” Betters said, recalling the massive stock of goods she’d purchased for the project.
The center also continued to provide substantial food services during the pandemic. With “Dishing Up Erving,” staff prepared 100 meals per month to serve seniors from July 2020 to June 2021. In addition, they continued their involvement in “Brown Bag: Food for Elders,” supplying a free bag of healthy groceries each month to people over the age of 55 who meet certain income requirements.
Betters said that perhaps the most important thing the Erving Senior and Community Center did during the pandemic was sign seniors up for vaccines. With help from the Franklin Regional Council of Governments (FRCOG) and LifePath, the center established a list of each Erving resident over the age of 65 and helped book hundreds of COVID-19 vaccination appointments.
In anticipation of the re-opening, Betters filled the calendar with upcoming activities and services.
“We’ve been ready because we’ve had so much time to come back and get ready,” Betters said.
The regular schedule includes two daily exercise sessions, lunches five days per week, health counseling sessions, a monthly foot clinic and Friday quilting workshops. The center will also host local outdoor services, such as Atlas Farm pop-up farmers’ markets on the second Wednesday of each month and a seated dance experience called “It’s All Aboard the Hip-Hop Soul Train Express.” Betters, who has already experienced the latter event, said it will “take you on a journey.”
“It’s just really fun,” she said. “I loved it.”
The Erving Senior and Community Center on Care Drive is now open from 8:30 a.m. to 3:30 p.m., Monday through Friday. Betters anticipates these hours will change in the coming months.
Reach Julian Mendoza at 413-772-0261, ext. 261 or jmendoza@recorder.com.