Old Bridge Senior Center 3rd Quarter Report 2017

Diane Amabile, Assistant Director/Manager

Old Bridge Senior Center/Food Bank

Health and Wellness Programs

• July

• Farmers Market Voucher Program

• American Hearing Presentation and Screening

• Profysio Physical Therapy Spine Screenings

• Rutgers Behavioral Health – Diversity in America

• RWJ Therapeutic Massages

• RBMC Terminal Illness Support Group

• August

• Wellspring Prevention – Conflict Resolution

• Wellspring Prevention – Nutrition & Health

• Rutgers Behavioral Health Stress Management

• Surrogate Kevin Hoagland – Wills & Living Wills

• RBMC Meridian Health – BP Checks

• RWJ Guided Imagery Meditation

• St. Peter’s Derma Scan & Bone Density

• September

• Amboy Bank Fraud Prevention

• Halcyon Pharmacy BP Screenings

• Senior Health & Fitness Walk

• Rallo Chiropractic

• Rutgers Behavioral Health Bullying Program

• RWJ Depression & Your Health

7%

29%

7% 22%

27%

8%

Programming

Health/Wellness

Socialization

Frail Assistance

Physical Activity

Special Events

Senior Services

Exercise & Activity While we offer many different activities throughout the week, active and sedentary programs, the chart below represents attendance and interest in our physical activity programs. Some other activities include art and sketch classes, painting and drawing and our popular needlework & crochet activities.

050

100150200250300350400450500550600650700

Yoga Move 2 Groove Zumba Chair Aerobics Walk Aerobics Gentle Fitness StrengthTraining

1st Qtr 2nd Qtr 3rd Qtr

Transportation During the quarter, our transportation services were extremely affected with the absence of our transportation coordinator and the vacant position of a bus driver. While the vacancy for the bus driver position was filled in August, we were still under pressure without a substitute driver to cover for vacations. Fortunately, a sub driver came on board at the end of September.

I’d like to give a public shout out to our full-timers Nancy Raisch, Iris DeArmas, Russ Nielsen, Nick Guigno, as well as our Camp Robin drivers Marty Ruane, Morton Lebow, Fran Headden and Mike Petschauer for working together and going above and beyond to serve our members in Old Bridge with much needed transportation. Thank you and please know that you are appreciated.

0

500

1000

1500

2000

2500

3000

3500

4000

4500

July

Au

gust

Sep

tem

ber

2016

2017

Ridership Comparison 2016/2017

Middlesex County Health & Fitness Walk Old Bridge was well represented at the Middlesex County Health & Fitness Walk with over 50 members in attendance. We were the winners of 8 raffles out of 14 drawn. Old Bridge was quite popular that day. !

International Day July 8, 2017 Celebrating diversity in our Center through music, art and dance

Comfort Ijomah - Nigeria

Daksha Shroff - India

Gaetana Gazzio - Italy

Diane Amabile, & Mayor Henry present Brenda Christian, our Dance Team

Choreographer, with a certificate and flower.

“Friday is Fun Day at the Center” During the summer we held our “Fun Fridays” for our members to help get the weekends off to a great start. We had Karaoke, hot pretzels, root beer, Friendly’s ice cream, DJ dancing, sing-a-longs and lots of laughs.

Mike Knable & Tom Smith Dancers Lori, Jill & Nancy cooking up the hot pretzels Juanita Rhodes & Doris Cammorto our root beer bartenders

Penny Dynamite Karaoke Singer

Malva Payton hitting the dance floor

Anahita Feltz, Diane Amabile and our friend John, owner of Friendly’s

Mid-Summer Luau Party at Palms Plaza We enjoyed a day at Palms Plaza for our annual Hawaiian Luau party. A delicious “island” buffet, hula dance contest and more. Members had themselves a fantastic time and it was a memorable day for many.

Our Annual Variety & Talent Show September 22, 2017

Diane Amabile & Tom Smith as “Sandy and Danny”

Members and staff participated in our annual show to a full house in September. Entertainment included the Young at Heart Chorus, multiple solo performances, the Dancing Divas & Dudes official dance team, the High Steppers Country Line Dancers, a ,musical dance interpretation by Brenda Christian, an outstanding performance by “The Blues Brothers” and the finale of the show, “Summer Nights” from Grease.

Members of the show put on a spectacular performance. Many standing ovations and so much fun. Keep Dancing. Keep Singing. Keep enjoying the center. I am so proud of everyone who worked so hard on this production.

The Cast of “Summer Nights” Bill Garthe, Bob MacMillan, Iris DeArmas, Anahita Feltz, Tomasita Pagan, Ward Biondi, Doris Cammorta, an d Mike Knable (not pictured)

The “Blues Brothers” Bill Garthe, Tom Smith, Ward Biondi and Mike Knable

Food Bank The food bank did their summer collection of school supplies to help those in need. The library served as a collection site as well as Kidzdent and Good Shepherd.

Also during the summer months, the Old Bridge Summer Camps conducted food drives bringing in over 1,000 lbs. of food.

Temple Shalom in Aberdeen held their annual high holiday food drive and filled our food bank van from top to bottom.

The food bank has served, during fiscal year 16/17, a total of 2,047 adults and 1,091 children under the age of 18 years old. During the summer months, our clientele increased drastically. More and more families in our community are needing help and during the summer our donations are generally down.

However, our partnership with MCFOODS and Cheesequake Farms helps us be able to serve all the clients and meet our demands, along with our quarterly donations from the Old Bridge/Sayreville Rotary.

Rebranding/Marketing Plan A presentation was made to the Old Bridge Township Council on September 25, 2017 for our rebranding plan. The Council, Mayor and Administration was very receptive to our mission, goals and objectives. While we are currently awaiting legal approval, we are ready to the George Bush Center, to be known as “Silver Linings at Old Bridge”, an activity center for adults 60+.

Summary

The third quarter was another terrific one for the Center. We registered 43 new members from July through September. The variety of activities, events, crafts, trips, exercise programs, and fun we offer to our participants is simply great. We will continue to make our accredited Center one of the best in New Jersey. We would not be able to provide the wonderful services and environment that we currently do for the very important members of our community without the on-going support and recognition from Mayor Owen Henry and all the Council members. We will continue to strive to be the silver lining behind the clouds for our members and community. Diane Amabile Asst. Director Social Services Senior Center/Food Bank Manager