Volunteer of the Month
Archives

September 2018
Ed & Vivian Foster

Photo of Ed & Vivian Foster

This month we don’t just have one Volunteer to show kudos upon, we have two! Ed & Vivian Foster are our newest Thrift Store volunteers. They actually came to us thanks to Vivian who was a member. Once they retired following twenty-five years of retail experience, Vivian told Ed that they should help us out at the Thrift Store. That was all it took. They first started out by bringing in store shelves and then by arranging the stock. Now they work 1-2 days a week moving the items from our center to your house. Ed was originally from Fort Huron, Michigan, and came west to Long Beach thanks to the navy. It was fate that the two met at the Central City Mall (the Carousel mall to you youngsters) where they both worked, each taking turns as the other’s supervisor at various stores. They worked so well together they ended up with six kids, fifteen grandkids, and eight great-grandkids! Thanks to Ed & Vivian for arranging our store and for arranging your time to help us out.

Featured Class

Brain Fitness
Date: September 12, 2018
Time: 1:00 - 3:00 pm
Length: 8 Weeks
Cost: $8 members
      $8 non-members
Instructor: Member Based Instruction
Location: Sun Room
Description: Quite sure we could all use a little better Brain Fitness. Your brain may not be a muscle but you need to keep it active to keep it healthy. Some of our members take advantage of our university classes, but learning is only a part of exercising your brain. To help you out we offer this Brain Fitness class. The class promotes brain health through fitness, nutrition, cognitive exercises and activities to boost memory skills and stimulate the brain. Adults are living longer and longer, and we need to promote mental as well as physical health. The group does crosswords, puzzles, trivia, and encourages active discussion. Everything is designed to get those synapses firing. The class is taught by various students, who take turns coming up with lesson plans. That in itself is a brain fitness activity! If you want to sharpen your skills and learn new things this group is for you . The group meets on Wednesdays at 1:00 p.m. in the game room and is always full, so make a mental note to show up at registration to ensure your spot. If you forget to register, you really need to get fit!

Featured Activity

Pool
Time: Dailys
Cost: Free members
      Free non-members
Location: The Game Room
Description: With the recent restoration of our pool table, and the kind donation of a new pool bridge, we thought it only fitting to shine the spotlite on pool. Billiards is an umbrella term for billiards and pool, which are not the same thing. Billiards is pool without pockets, played with smaller balls (three balls; white, yellow, and red) striking a ball after a bank. A type of snooker could be played on our table with a bit of imagination. Snooker involves a larger table, smaller pockets and red and colored balls and a white cue, alternating sinking red and colored, except after sinking a colored ball you put it back in it's original spot. Pool involves a table with 6 pockets, a clue ball, and 15 object balls that may or may not be pocketed in order, depending on whether you're playing 8 or 9 ball pool. Nine ball is played with nine balls numbered one through nine, and a cue ball. On each shot the first ball the cue ball contacts must be the lowest-numbered ball on the table, but the ball need not be pocketed in order. Players are not required to call any shot. A match ends when one of the players has won the required number of games (as determined by the players. Eight ball is a call shot game played with a cue ball and fifteen object balls, numbered 1 through 15. One player must pocket ball of the solid colors, and the other player pockets the stripes. The player pocketing his group first and then legally sinking the 8-ball wins. If this sounds confusing we usually have someone in the room playing, especially in the late afternoons. If we get enough interest we can even set up a dedicated pool time for you sharks.
Rennovation Still Ongoing
By: Mike Sylva
For those naysayers who thought our ongoing renovation was surely as a standstill, we’d like to point out that slowly but surely, we are still fixing up the place. It might not pop at you as much as a new coat of paint or carpet, was we are sprucing up the place regardless.

We recently purchased some much needed equipment to be used for our various activities. We have now added a mobile TV stand with a lockable cabinet, to keep our equipment from growing feet and walking off. We now also have a ceiling pulldown screen in the game room / computer lab, as well as a huge tripod widescreen screen we can take from room to room, as well to outside events.

This is not the end of the work either. It is still a work in progress and yes, we are still planning on the addition on the sun room which will give us lots more room for more activities. So keep your eyes open and you’ll be amazed and the ongoing changes we have in store for you.