Oak Lawn and Evergreen Park offer services and activities designed to keep older residents active and engaged in lifelong learning.
Nowhere is this more evident than at the Oak Lawn Senior Center, 5330 W. 95th St.
“Our activities are designed to educate and entertain, and we offer everything from regularly scheduled table games such as canasta, bridge and pinochle to aerobics, mild exercise, line dancing and advanced line dancing,” said Rochelle Hatton, senior center director. The center has 4,870 members and an annual budget of close to $200,000.
“We also sponsor discussions and schedule speakers for our Coffee Time programs, which are presented at the center the third Monday of every month,” she said. Films are scheduled at 1 p.m. Tuesdays.
The center also sponsors day trips by bus to plays, concerts and museums.The center offers professional on-site health screenings and free blood pressure and diabetes screenings.
Mary Page, 82, has lived in Oak Lawn since 1955 and has been active at the senior center for about 20 years. Page is a volunteer at the Community Nutrition Network meal site in Oak Lawn, where she might staff the front desk or call the numbers for bingo.
Jolene Churak, director of the Office of Citizens’ Services for Evergreen Park, said volunteers are key to the center’s success.
“They give to the community and in doing so they reinforce their own feelings of self-worth,” she said.
Although Evergreen Park’s population is about 21,000 compared with Oak Lawn’s approximately 57,000, the village also offers many opportunities for residents to learn new skills and refine familiar ones, in addition to providing health information.
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Citizens’ Services activities are conducted at the Maher Community Center, 3450 W. 97th St., where residents socialize over bridge, chess and pinochle games; exercise to video instruction; line dance; watch films; learn how to paint and needlepoint; and create items for the annual fall bazaar fundraiser.
The Community Center offers hearing screening tests, the Rules of the Road review of current driving laws and a two-day 55-Alive driving course conducted periodically by the American Association of Retired Persons. Staff members and volunteers provide information on Social Security benefits, property tax relief, emergency heat and cold shelter, home-delivered meals and other matters important to seniors’ well-being.
The Evergreens, a senior social club, meets at the center at 1 p.m. on the first Wednesday of every month. The club sponsors parties throughout the year, including ice cream socials, bingo and potluck lunches.
The Double Nickel Plus Chorus, which meets at 9:30 a.m. Wednesdays, entertains at senior centers and nursing homes. Its director is Emily Nowicki, 80.
Nowicki and her husband, Edward, 81, a chorus member and soloist, joined the group when they retired in 1981.
The group has 25 members, five of them men. Their performance itinerary includes Covington Elementary School in Oak Lawn.
“It’s a good exchange because it’s an opportunity for youngsters to see that oldsters aren’t confined to wheelchairs, and the children’s enthusiasm and appreciation always gives us a lift,” she said.
“We do songs representative of each decade of the 1900s–`Barney Google,’ `Tomorrow,’ `I’d Like to Teach the World to Sing’ are among them,” Nowicki said. “When we sing these songs for seniors, they often join in, which really warms my heart.”
For people with impaired physical, psychological or emotional abilities Little Company of Mary Hospital, 2800 W. 95th St., Evergreen Park, offers a comprehensive program of group activities, including games, discussions, crafts and exercise through its daily-fee Adult Day Care Center.The charge is $45 a day, which includes morning and afternoon snacks and lunch.
Little Company Connections, an umbrella agency, refers and coordinates the hospital’s adult day care, home-based care, mobile medical care van, support and hospice services. Denise Stillman, manager of public relations and marketing for Little Company, said its programs for seniors serve 9,000 clients annually. Connections’ free benefits for people 50 and up include help filling out health insurance and Medicare claim forms, educational programs, blood pressure screening and discounts on health services.
The Senior Breakfast Club meets on the third Friday of every month at Christ Hospital and Medical Center, 4440 W. 95th St., Oak Lawn, for a light breakfast and a program, often with a speaker.