BACK IN THE GAME
Seniors play a card game called “Chase the 8s” at the newly reopened Sheraden Healthy Active Living Center on Monday. From left are Rita Ernharth, 87, of Sheraden; Rose Paulin, 81, of Kennedy; Dolores Bickel, 88, of Sheraden; and Diane Pritchard, 61, of Ingram. The center was one of three in Pittsburgh that reopened Monday. “They’re like a little family,” said Gloria Townsend, program supervisor for the city’s seniors. “That’s what they missed. That’s what they’re coming back to.”
Longtime friends Emma Dimoff, Viney Walker and Margaret Weber took their spots at a back table at the Sheraden Healthy Active Living Center on Monday morning.
The trio, who have frequented the senior center on Sherwood Avenue several days per week for the past 20 years, spent the day talking to each other and mingling with other regulars of the center, which began its phased reopening Monday after closing in spring 2020 at the onset of the coronavirus crisis.
Although they were happy to be back, the three women said they were disappointed the center is not yet offering their favorite activity: bingo.
Healthy Active Living Centers in Homewood, Sheraden and South Side Market House were the first senior centers to reopen
Monday under a modified schedule as Pittsburgh helps its most vulnerable residents resume their lives since the pandemic forced them to stay at home.
The centers will operate Monday to Friday from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m.
Greenfield’s center will open Tuesday, and seven other centers will follow suit on Aug. 2 under the same modified schedule. The centers are allowing seniors to socialize without masks if they’re vaccinated.
Program Supervisor Gloria Townsend greeted seniors Monday at the Sheraden location. She described the centers as a “home away from home” for Pittsburgh’s elderly population. During normal times, the centers provide dine-in meals, host holiday parties, offer bowling and put on bingo for patrons — activities that are expected to resume in September.
“They’re just like a little family here,” Ms. Townsend said. “That’s what they’re coming back to today and what our opening is all about, and that’s why we’re extremely happy.”
Roughly 50 seniors picked up frozen takeaway meals at Sheraden on Monday, and around 20 stayed to socialize.
Ms. Walker, 79, of Sheraden, who is the center’s lead bingo organizer, described arriving Monday morning as “gorgeous.” Hunkering down at home over the past year was “blah,” she said.
“We enjoy coming here and socializing,” she said. “When you can’t go anywhere and you just sit there, then you’ll be bored. Only so much you can do at home.”
Although the centers did not offer in-person programming during the pandemic, they tried to assist seniors virtually. Ms. Townsend said the centers helped seniors set up computers the county sent them to stay connected remotely. Staff also conducted wellness checks with seniors by phone.
The centers also provided grab-and-go meals to seniors over the course of the pandemic and will continue to do so three times per week at distribution sites throughout the city.
Monday marked the first day in nearly two years Ms. Dimoff, 86, of Crafton Heights, went to the center. Before the coronavirus, she was hospitalized with Lyme disease.
“I just told myself I had to keep going,” Ms. Dimoff said.
Although their usual gathering place was closed over the past year, Ms. Dimoff, Ms. Walker and Ms. Weber, 79, of Coraopolis, spoke to each other most days by phone and also saw each other for lunch.
Ms. Dimoff, who said she was happy to return to the Sheraden center, acknowledged it was not as lively Monday as it was before the pandemic. “I knew we weren’t going to do anything — weren’t going to eat, weren’t going to play bingo,” she said.
Bingo seemed to be in high demand.
Asked if there was anything else she wanted to say, Ms. Walker declared: “Just want to get back to bingo. That’s all.”
“We enjoy coming here and socializing. When you can’t go anywhere and you just sit there, then you’ll be bored. Only so much you can do at home.”
— Viney Walker, Sheraden