September set for Swampscott seniors

SWAMPSCOTT – The Swampscott Senior Center is getting ready to recognize September as National Senior Center Month by planning special events that will continue throughout the fall.”I hope that you will look at this month’s calendar and think of it as a grand time to find something else to do here at the senior center,” Director Marilyn Hurwitz wrote in a newsletter.”Staying active, using your brain, getting exercise, coming to lunch or joining a group for a trip or special event keeps us aging with dignity and prevents isolation,” she said.Over the summer, the senior center doesn’t offer many special events, said administrative assistant Betty Gallo, but as the summer comes to a close, the activities begin to pick back up.The regularly scheduled events – such as lunch each day, a knitting group, yoga, line dancing, tai chi, the Wednesday poker league, the Monday and Friday poker league, rummy cube, and mah jongg – continued to be offered throughout the summer.Bingo will revert back to its regular-season schedule on Friday, Sept. 11, which is after lunch at 12:45 p.m. on Tuesdays and Fridays. Over the summer, it is only held on Fridays at 9:45 a.m.The Men’s Club monthly meetings will begin again on Thursday, Sept. 17 and will include lunch at 1 p.m. and different guest speakers each month. They will be held the third Thursday of every month.”A lot of people are wanting to take off for the weekend during the summer,” Gallo said. “We always have our regular schedule, but we don’t have the special events.”In addition to the return of more regularly scheduled activities, a few special events are on the horizon.A Crazy Hat and Ice Cream Social will be held this Tuesday after lunch. Everyone is asked to wear their favorite hat and, in return, will receive a free ice cream sundae. Those who do not wear a hat can still have a sundae for $2.Right in time for senior center month, there will be an open house on Sunday Sept. 27 from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., and all seniors are welcome to attend and learn more about the facility.”All staff will be there to welcome new people who aren’t familiar with the senior center,” Gallo said. “Hopefully we will have some new people who haven’t been before that will want to come back.”Anybody is welcome,” she said. “We only provide transportation for Swampscott residents, but you don’t have to live in Swampscott to come here.”In October, the senior center will travel to East Sakura in Salem, and an Italian Festival at Danversport Yacht Club.It will also resume its monthly trips to Foxwoods in October, Gallo said. The trip includes a bus ride from Vinnin Square at 7 a.m., $10 coupon for food, and $10 bonus for slots. The cost of the trip is $28 per person.”Everything is great for the seniors,” said Joe Paluzzi, of Salem, who comes to the center to play poker. “It’s the idea of keeping them out so they’re not housebound. It keeps their mind stimulated. All of the activities stimulate people, which is great.”It gets them out socially and into the community more,” he said. “It gives a purpose to people to be able to do something.””This way people are not couch potatoes,” said Norma Freedman, of Swampscott. “They can come here and meet people, play bingo, have lunch here.”She teaches the mah jongg classes and participates in the poker group on Mondays and Fridays.”I like teaching people,” she said. “I’m very happy with it. It helped me make friends. There’s a lot of variety here.””Everybody comes, the only ones that don’t come are the ones who go to Florida,” said Mary Katsoulis, who is on the Steering Committee and plays in the poker league on Wednesdays. She has been coming to the center four days a week since it opened eight years ago.Gallo said that each day for lunch they have between 10 and 40 people. Sixty to 70 people come to play bingo, and for special events, they have up to 90.”The senior center is very active with a very diverse menu of activities and classes,” Gallo said.It is located at 200 Essex St.