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Featured Class

Italian
Date: April 24, 2020
Time: 9:00 - 10:00 am
Length: 8
Cost: $8 members
      $8 non-members
Instructor: Rita Sicilliano
Location: Game Room
Description: Italian is taught by Margherita Sicilliano. Margherita, who also goes by the names Margo or Rita, and is from the old country. Born in Caserta, Italy, she was actually born in the Italian Royal Palace (the Reggia di Caserta). Her mom was touring the palace when she went into labor. Not many people can say that they were born in a royal palace, much less a UNESCO World Heritage Site! Raised and educated in Italy, she was still in college when she came with her family to the United States. She continued with her education getting a Bachelor's Degree. She then went back to Italy to get her Master's Degree. Her teaching experience spans 42 years and includes teaching high school French, Spanish, and Italian in New York, as well as French and Spanish Advanced Placement classes at the local Aquinas High School. After retiring some friends told her about the center. She took a trip here and discovered a fellow Italian, Virginia Kautzman, and the two became friends. Margo also found out about our University Language classes, and decided to get back into teaching. She approached us about teaching here, and after offering a choice between Italian and German, everyone decided that Italian would be perfect. Now it is the only Italian class being offered in the area. Student’s need to bring only a pencil and paper to class. There is a work book students can purchase through Amazon for $16, but it is not necessary. The class is open to absolute beginners and those who wish to keep up their Italian. A presto! See you soon!

Featured Activity

Table Shuffleboard
Time: Fridays 1:00 pm
Cost: FREE members
      FREE non-members
Location: Gameroom
Description: In table shuffleboard, the play area is a 22' laminated surface covered with silicone beads (colloquially called 'shuffleboard wax') to reduce friction. Players try to slide metal-and-plastic pucks, sometimes called weights or shuckles, to come to rest within zones at the other end of the board. Cues are not used, the pucks being propelled with the hands directly on the raised table. There are scoring zones at each end of the table so that direction of play can rotate after each frame, or so that teams can play both directions during one frame. More points are awarded for weights scoring closer to the far edge of the board. Players take turns sliding the pucks, trying to score points, bump opposing pucks off the board, and/or protect their own pucks from bump-offs. The long sides of the table are bounded by gutters into which pucks can fall or be knocked (in which case they are no longer in play for the remainder of the frame). A variant known sometimes as bankboard has rubber cushions or 'banks' running the length of both sides of the table, instead of gutters, and as in billiards, the banks can be used to gain favorable position. Come join our shuffleboard bunch and have-a-go at it.
Aerobics class goes Bollywood
By: Mike Sylva
Last month, one of our Aerobics Instructors, Julia Ragan, decided to try something new in her Wednesday class. Something she likes to call Bollyrobics. It’s a mixture of aerobics and Bollywood (or Indian Movie style) dancing, along with Indian music. She only meant to try it one time, but they class enjoyed it so much, they asked her to continue. And so it has. The Wednesday class does their normal aerobics routine, then around 9:30 or so, they break out their scarves, and really start to move. It looks simple, but the participants definitely get a workout. If you’d like to try it out, just come to the Wednesday aerobics class at 9am, dressed to exercise, don’t forget the scarf, and get ready to bust a move...Bollywood style!