Local senior centers provide service, society

By ARLINE A. FLEMING

Valley Breeze & Observer

Correspondent

SCITUATE - Judith W. Loven, director of the Senior Center on Chopmist Hill, answered her office telephone shortly after arriving at work on Thursday.

"Where do you need to go? We do appointments on Monday and Tuesday," she said to the caller who was hoping for a ride to a doctor's appointment.

"We have a senior center here," Loven explained, telling of the place where local seniors gather for lunch and other activities Wednesday, Thursday and Friday, and where free rides to medical appointments can be arranged on Mondays and Tuesdays.

Several miles away on that same day, Fran Ballou, director of the Glocester Senior Center, all but repeated the conversation to a caller wondering about the offerings of that town's senior center located at 1210 Putnam Pike.

Despite both town centers offering a meal site and organized activities for seniors, the offerings sometimes remain unfamiliar to area residents new to retirement or to town.

"This is a place for them to gather," Ballou said, telling of the $12 yearly membership fee which entitles those 55 and older access "to everything, complete use of the facility."

At Chopmist Hill, Loven continued to explain to her caller about senior van services and other activities.

"I'll send you our newsletter," Loven told her caller, a newsletter which lists its Wednesday-Thursday-Friday noontime menu catered by Blackstone Health Inc., along with a listing of upcoming activities, day trips, and weekday activities.

That newsletter comes with reminders of monthly birthdays, requests for homemade articles to sell at a Dec. 6 Christmas bazaar, and a tally of meals served the previous month, which numbered 673, and ranged from an open faced turkey sandwich with gravy, to seafood casserole.

"The people here are wonderful," said Ed Olausen, 74, arriving at the Chopmist center as bingo was in full swing and tables were set for a lunch of Italian wedding soup, veal with mushroom gravy, mashed potatoes, baby carrots, bread, and for those not up for that selection, a tuna sandwich would be available.

"It feels like home," he said.

An estimated 50 people are served lunch daily at the former inn, said Loven, a complete meal for a $3 donation. Afterward, they play cards, cribbage, work on computers or crafts, many staying until the 3:30 closing. For those who want to come to lunch, Loven asks that they call ahead at 647-2662.

Located at 1315 Chopmist Hill Road, Scituate Senior Services originated as a lunch program in 1993 at the North Scituate Community House, and moved in 2004 to the inn after it was acquired by the town. The former inn was often the location for picnics, clambakes and banquets, Loven said, and is very familiar to local residents. After the property, including 43 acres, was obtained, a former ballroom was turned into the dining hall.

Loven said a portion of the inn dates to the 1800s and served Danielson Pike travelers when the mode of transportation was by stagecoach. In later years, it became a place of employment for area residents and Loven said most visitors these days arrive saying they either worked there as youngsters, or attended a banquet or dinner dance there.

"It's a very happy place," said Loven, who started out as a senior services volunteer prior to becoming director.

"I just love this job," she said.

Elsie Oliver, on the brink of 89, said she was new to Scituate when her husband died nearly six years ago.

"Judy Loven made a point to stop over and see me and give me information about the center," Mrs. Oliver said.

"It has been an absolute godsend. I have met some of the nicest people," said Mrs. Oliver, "and Judy is a marvelous director. She should be an ambassador to some country. She really goes out of her way. It almost feels like a family here."

(Mrs. Oliver attended a recent Halloween luncheon at the center dressed as a retired Playboy bunny. When a Valley Breeze & Observer photographer asked for her name, she said it was Mrs. Hugh Heffner.)

At the Glocester Senior Center, director Fran Ballou said not only do town residents use the four-year-old facility, but also, residents from surrounding communities use it too.

"We have 600 members, not that they all come all the time," but being a member at a cost of $12 a year means everything in the large facility, from the pool tables to the exercise equipment to the computers to the meal site, is open to them.

Like most senior meal sites, the mid-day meal is by a $3 donation. Today, seniors will dine on French onion soup, roast chicken, parsley potatoes, beans, carrots and Jello. Meals are served five days a week, except for holidays. Though the center will be closed on Thanksgiving, on the day before, roast turkey with stuffing, whipped potatoes, peas and onions and pumpkin pie will be served bringing the holiday meal a day early to members who sign up.

Ballou said they average about 25 to 30 people a day. Some days are busier than others. Prior to the town opening the center on Putnam Pike, the meal site was at the Laurel Grange. After many years of planning, the new center, with a two-sided fireplace in the central gathering area opened to local seniors.

"It's very well utilized," said Board member Ernie LaFazia, "some days you can't get a parking place. Members have approached him, he said, saying "thank-you, this place saved my life. I was sitting home alone.

"They come here," said LaFazia, "and they have a ball."

Those coming for lunch should register several days in advance by calling 710-9860. Up until recently, Glocester residents had a van to transport them back and forth, supported by a local resident. That recently ended, said Ballou, and she's searching for a resolution.

"We're having transportation problems," she said, and she's heard complaints from members who read in The Valley Breeze and Observer about Scituate seniors getting a reconditioned van by way of their state Rep. Michael J. Marcello.

"They're asking, how can we get one of those," Ballou said.

The Scituate bus is equipped with a wheelchair lift and came by way of RIPTA which refurbishes its older vehicles and presents them to organizations and communities on a request and need basis. Marcello learned of the need for a vehicle in Scituate, and with the help of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, made a request to RIPTA.

On a recent Thursday, 10 seniors stepped off one of the two vehicles which picks up town residents and takes them shopping prior to arriving at the center.

The Scituate group's next goal is to raise funds for an awning at the entrance so that arriving seniors aren't deluged when it rains. They hope to raise money during their Dec. 6 "Christmas on the Hill" bazaar from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. Seniors have long been working on craft items to be sold that day.

"I look forward to going to the center," said Elsie Oliver, who will celebrate her 89th birthday there on Thursday, Nov. 12.

"Just the idea of being with others. There's always something going on there."