After the Village of Morton Grove parted ways with its former provider of senior programming, village officials on Jan. 5 started up a full schedule of lectures, bingo, card-playing groups, exercise classes, book groups and more.
The village partnered with Mather LifeWays, the American Association of Retired People (AARP), the Morton Grove Park District and Morton Grove Library to plan activities, Village Administrator Ryan Horne said.
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The park district is providing senior-focused fitness classes at the Morton Grove Civic Center, where senior programming is held, and the library is organizing book groups. Horne said Mather has provided well-attended senior programming in the past and wanted to continue.
Mayor Dan DiMaria wanted to optimize the value seniors received from their local public bodies, according to Horne.
“Mayor DiMaria felt strongly that our village should partner and collaborate with other government agencies in order to maximize our resident’s ‘value’ from the village,” Horne said.
The January and February schedules include humanities lectures such as “Walt Disney: Creativity Frame by Frame” on Jan. 13, “A Loaf of Bread, a Slice of History” on Jan. 14, “Assassination of Abe Lincoln” on Feb. 3, “1924: The Trial of Leopold and Loeb” on Feb. 11, “America’s Greatest First Ladies” Feb. 17 and “1932: The Kidnapping of the Infant Son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh” Feb. 24.
There are also music appreciation and opera appreciation events, such as “Musical Moments in Comedy: The 1930s” on Jan. 20 and “Puccini’s Operas: La Boheme” on Jan. 5.
Travelogues include “Barcelona, Spain: Art, Architecture and Food ” on Jan. 26. There are also wellness classes, game and card clubs such as pinochle and bridge, Senior Club, crafts such as needlework and more.
The new programming comes in the wake of North Shore Senior Center’s pullout of their services in October, which was preceded by the September pullout of the social worker they provided to Morton Grove.
Jordan Luhr, North Shore’s executive director, at that time said the village was going on a month-to-month contract with his organization, but that NSSC needed a year-long contract to predict and plan staffing.
Three senior residents said at the Oct. 27 Village Board meeting that the village had not done enough to work with North Shore and retain its services, of which they spoke highly.
The three presented a letter to the village, which read in part, “After much ‘jerking around’ with the provision of social services (refusing to establish a contract for the NSSC social worker), limiting space in the Civic Center for the Lifelong Learning Program and what appears to be a competitiveness on the part of the Park District, the NSSC has finally pulled out.”
However, a committee DiMaria established in early 2014 to examine whether the village should continue to look to North Shore for its social worker or hire its own social worker, addressed the Village Board at its Sept. 15 meeting. Connie Travis, the committee’s chairperson, said the members had concluded the village would be better off hiring its own social worker.