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Date: 6/13/2023
AMHERST — With the temperatures rising ahead of the official start of summer, the Senior Center has plans in place to offer a full complement of activities while taking a more casual and open scheduling approach to appeal to seniors with a diverse calendar over the next couple of months.
Center Director Hayley Bolton said ice cream socials every Friday will feature special guests like members of the Council on Aging and the Fire Department will offer presentations. There will also be planned “Salon Days” for members of the community.
“Summertime can be difficult because you never know are people going away or do, they just want to be outside and not come indoors so we just kind of do things so that anybody can drop in and have a good time,” she said.
Coinciding with the town’s recognition of Pride Month, the center is offering The Rainbow Coffee Hour, a new social coffee group get-together for members of the LGBTQ+ community ages 50 and up. The plan for the hour-long monthly gathering is so people may socialize and make connections. Amherst resident Marc Barrette, a recent transplant from Belchertown, is behind the launch, similar to sit-downs he started there.
Later this month, the center is providing a special screening of “Gen Silent,” a 2011 film centered around Boston-based members of the LGBTQ+ population, who as older adults faced the challenges of secrecy and battles for equality while also faced with health and long-term care issues for themselves and their partners without legal or official recognition of their relationships.
Bolton calls the stories heart wrenching.
“It talks about how you help care for a partner when for so long you couldn’t even say that you were their partner,” she said.
The film will be shown on June 22 at 6 p.m. with conversation to follow.
The center will continue to provide its calendar of programs encompassing exercise and movement to music and reading.
Bolton said the attendance numbers at the center do tend to decrease a little bit in the summer months, particularly when the higher temperatures come but it remains a place to seek a comfortable climate and relaxed environment.
“For a lot of older adults being in the high temperatures, especially the ones we’ve been seeing in the last few years and the humidity, that can be really difficult for folks to get out and about with,” she said.
Bolton also reminded residents that the Silver Shuttle transportation service is operating on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9 a.m. through 5 p.m.
More information on Senior Center activities can be found at seniorcenter@amherstma.gov.