The Norwood Senior Center had to close down programming on March 13th due to the pandemic, but the executive director and staff never stopped coming to work at the Center every day. They never worked from home, and they never stopped their essential transportation service, managed by their senior bus driver Ellen Rano. While other senior centers shut their doors and were able to do some nice virtual programming, ours chose to take a different tac and said, “What can we do to get out into the community.” At the beginning of the pandemic the Center delivered 150 little pansies to seniors. And they continued their practice of randomly calling folks to check on them. “We still struggle with not finding every senior in town because some seniors still think they’re too young to come here, but we’re working on it,” [Guilty], Executive Director of Norwood’s Council on Aging and the Senior Center Kerri McCarthy said. Her answer was concerning when asked what she thought seniors were missing most during this pandemic. “Without a doubt, social interaction is what’s missing most,” McCarthy explained. “Some people have not left their homes since March 10th. They left our St. Patrick’s Day party on March 10th and they have not been out the door since, except, perhaps, in their yards. They have not gone to a grocery store, nor have they gone to their childrens’ homes. The mental health crisis that we are going to be entering is going to be huge. This is not the way older adults should live the rest of their years. This is a time of life when a lot of seniors are financially secure, their kids are on their own, their grandchildren are grown and this is when they should be enjoying life. This pandemic has caused everything to be shut down for them and it’s just devastating. It’s so sad. We’re just going to try to bring the community together and we’ll continue to do that any way we can.” Because the Senior Center closed programming and with the uncertainty of the pandemic, the staff immediately switched to more of a social service model than a senior center activity model in March. They have helped people with unemployment claims, emergency SNAP (food stamps) benefits, done grocery shopping for people who are quarantined, picked up medications for them and whatever else was needed. “It was all-hands-on-deck at the Senior Center,” McCarthy said. “While my program coordinator was shopping for people, my driver was picking up medicine. We were delivering lunches ... we were delivering meals on wheels ... we just all came together and did what we needed to do.” The Senior Center continued with their lunch program even though the students, who are part of their intergenerational program, were not in the classroom; they were learning their culinary skills virtually. The chef was still able to continue the program with them and they arranged a “grab and go” lunch. The seniors would line up in their cars to pick up their meals. That continues today. They were able to continue the lunch program through the summer twice a week; now they are back to four times a week. The only change is that they can’t eat inside; but, arrangements can be made for lunch delivery. A group of volunteers from the community will deliver them. “The lunch program has been steady and extremely beneficial,” McCarthy said. “As of October, the Senior Center has served over 5,000 meals since the pandemic started! In our outreach, we try to pick what’s most important to people. We need to keep them fed. We need to make sure they get their prescriptions. And they need to exercise. The saying at the Senior Center is ‘If you rest you rot.’ We need to keep people moving; otherwise, how do they get back on the bus when it’s time?” One of the things to help with exercise is looking towards Norwood Community Media to come and film all of their exercise classes. From March through August, seniors could go on U-tube or Norwood Community Media and get their exercise classes. They also aired a zoom yoga class. Seniors were worried about filing their tax returns this year. The AARP volunteer who helped last year returned and scheduled 100 tax appointments. All tax returns were filed by the deadline. On August 3rd, the Senior Center reopened in-house programming. They brought back their exercise classes, the fitness room and the computer lab. Everything is now is pre-registered. Classes that used to have 50 or 60 people can now only have 15. Not ideal, but they continue to do outreach. The Town was scheduled to pave the Senior Center parking lot. Someone had the idea to block off a section and make a Parking Lot Park for outdoor programs. The Town was happy to oblige, and the Park was created. Line dancing, anyone? Coffee? “Whenever folks are in the Park, we roll out the coffee cart and serve them coffee and a little treat,” McCarthy said. They have had the Whoppie Pie Wagon, the Cookie Monster Truck, DJ Dogs – all with the guidance of the Health Department. McCarthy said that everything she does is cleared by the Health Department first and everybody follows the social distancing rules. The Center has purchased heaters for use outside to keep people warm as the season changes. Since March, the Senior Center has participated in community food drives, had a few pop-up farmers markets, assisted with a secondary food pantry with a group of volunteers from town hall, and given out gift cards to seniors to try to offset increased food costs the seniors encountered. “We’ve been very fortunate that people have been very gracious with their donations to enable us to do this [gift cards].” For the past 49 years, Lombardo’s has welcomed people who don’t have family or are living alone to enjoy a Thanksgiving dinner at their site. This year, they will deliver the dinner to the Senior Center for distribution. As of the date of this interview, 150 people had already signed up. Thanksgiving morning, volunteers will deliver dinner to all of the people who are on the list. Now that the weather is turning colder, the staff will be working on creating more virtual meetings since nothing can be done indoors. Outreach Coordinator, Trish Monahan will conduct Zoom meetings two times a month to answer questions about fuel assistance, Medicare referrals, and whatever questions seniors may have. The staff is hoping to have the Telephone Bingo game set up soon. We can’t tell you what the December events will include because they are a surprise!! Things have not stopped at the Senior Center for even a minute! The big functions, the large parties and the group gatherings in the cafe are, out of necessity, now on hold for quite some time, but McCarthy and her staff have never stopped their mission at the Senior Center. We owe them a huge thank you for all they do on behalf of our seniors!