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Spring Valley Senior Center

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By Janet Miller

Summer is here … if you’re looking for a place to keep cool check out the Spring Valley Senior Center!

We have activities going four days a week – 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. We keep expanding the variety a bit. We continue to offer crafts in the mornings, with Tunisian crochet, water color painting, wire sculpture, and card making led by Cameron, as well as a class June 20 to make fridge photo magnets – bring photos of loved ones.

On Tuesday and Thursday, we sing, exercise and line dance. We recently added Qi Gong occasionally for relaxation. Afternoons are usually bid euchre, dominoes, and now canasta and Zonks, a dice game. We also always have a jigsaw puzzle going and a book library for free borrowing.

Hilde and Richard Stepler have kept our quilt machine going and Judy finishing a quilt (pictured) as a gift for her daughter. Hilde is here for help with quilt projects Monday mornings and Friday afternoons.

We are still serving lunches on all of the days we are open, although we just changed our kitchen staff! Joy left us, moving to Florida on short notice to help care for her mother, who had heart surgery. We have just hired a new gal, Jacqueline Maccow. She lives in Bloomingburg and makes medicine deliveries for Centerville Pharmacy late afternoons. She saw our help wanted sign and thought this would give her something to do before her other job without more gas expense. She has already helped with a pork chop day lunch so we’ve already gotten to see how she works!

Meals are prepared here on Mondays by different members or staff, catered Tuesdays and Thursdays by Little Miami River Catering, and leftovers or salad meals on Fridays. We’ve been having trouble getting our minimum number for catering while we’re dealing with vacations, so call us to see if we have extra meals.

Menus are available here or on-line at www.springvalleyseniorcenter.com. Lunches are served from 11:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Coming up next week is our own baked pork chop lunch June 20. Sign up or call us.

We still have Second Friday and 5th Friday in July progressive Euchre parties at 5:30 p.m. and welcome anyone to join us for $5 and bring a covered dish. Generally there are 20 -24 participants. We also have a carry-in dinner at 6 p.m. on the fourth Friday and enjoy visiting and often play cards just for fun. If you want to come and learn but not so competitive about winning, this night is a relaxed time to hang out with friends and community.

We recently added five names to our Memorial plaque, Jack Ponder, Dick Nettles, Russell Berwanger, Fred Berry, and Peg Lickliter. Our condolences go out to families of members we’ve lost and those going through illnesses or chemo.

The center is a good place to touch base for talking to someone who understands and connect with GCCOA and the support groups and funding for seniors that they offer. The goal is to keep seniors active and able to stay in their homes as long as possible and to provide social activity. We held our annual meeting in May and honored Jeanie Hughes and Louise Stocker as volunteers of the year, and elected a new board member, Sandie Thompson. We enjoyed a fun afternoon, honoring our volunteers, with a program on hats and purses, by Diana Myers and Ruth Whitney. Thanks to all of our community partners for the door prizes and gifts.

Upcoming special activities include a health talk by nursing student Hannah Fry 12:30 p.m. Tuesday, June 28. She will be talking about dealing with arthritis and recognizing heart issues. We close for July 4 for Independence Day! And we are currently working on the next newsletter and menus for the next quarter, if anyone has a activity or meal request, a lunch they’d like to prepare or an article to submit.

Submitted photo Hilde and Richard Stepler have kept our quilt machine going and Judy finishing a quilt as a gift for her daughter.
http://aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2016/06/web1_JanetMillerColumnNEW.jpgSubmitted photo Hilde and Richard Stepler have kept our quilt machine going and Judy finishing a quilt as a gift for her daughter.

http://aimmedianetwork.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/32/2016/06/web1_MillerJanet.jpg

By Janet Miller

Janet Miller is the director of the Spring Valley Senior Center and guest columnist.