Glenridge Senior Center in Glendale is still one of the favorites for the 100 to 200 seniors that come through their doors, because of the intimacy level of all those involved.       

“I really looked for support when my husband passed away 20 years ago,” said one senior who has been at Glenridge since the year after it opened.  “And I had so many friends here and I would tell anyone to go to a senior center.”

Besides the day trips to the New York Botanical Garden or Sunken Meadow Park, highlights for Glenridge members are bingo and a plethora of activities ranging from stress management, tai chi, and judo classes, to social dancing and lectures from guest speakers who are medical and nutritional experts.

And, the Glenridge facility is only getting only better, according to the executive director Susan Simonetti.  In the coming months, an outdoor garden deck and a computer room with 10 computers donated by Con Edison are in the works.

Getting Down With The Rap Sessions

Opened since 1974, the Allen Community Senior Center in Jamaica offers seniors a warm ambiance, great food, and intriguing stories. From 8 to 10 in the morning, the center holds daily “rap sessions,” or story-telling discussions that seniors will sign up for in order to exchange real-life stories ranging from events that occurred 50 years ago to those that happened last week, according to Singleton-Belton.

Woodside Senior Center Director Matthew Ancond (l) and Assistant Director Juan Maldonado (r) look forward to the center’s expansion expected next year.

Executive Director Margaret Singleton-Belton said, “When people come here, and you could you get the feeling of warmth, and people are cheery polite and make you feel welcome.”

Asked if any marriages have been in store for seniors who met at the center, Singleton-Belton said light-heartedly, “At most senior centers, men are a rare commodity,” but at the moment, “we do call one particular single member, the playboy of the center.”

Some activities available to members are the drama club, billiards, games, union scrabble, aerobics, arts and design, nutrition, films, blood pressure testing and games like beginner and advanced bridge.

Personality Counts

Asked what the best part of the Woodside Senior Center is in its 35th year running, member Tilly Bianco said it’s “the way it is run. The director is very good natured and he listens and helps whenever he can with his personal problems.”

Director Matthew Ancona, who has been at the center for 13 years, has been looking into plans to expand the center for the past four years—with a 1.5 million grant made possible with the help of the former Councilmember McCaffrey—in which he has laid the groundwork for a site across the street near the park that will allow for more space for activities.

Although Ancona said that he held his breath when Queens senior centers were threatened by budget cuts this past year, he said that having a back-up plan always helps.

Need a center? To find the best center in a neighborhood near you, log on to the Department For The Aging website at http://a069_webapps1.nyc.gov/ egovt/services/service_query.cfm

Finding creative ways to raise money – like selling ad space for the center’s newsletter the “Woodside Times” to local businesses – has raised over $20,000 and helped alleviate the cost of day trips and other events.