Volunteer of the Month
Archives

April 2021
Leisa Alexander

Photo of Leisa Alexander

This month we’d like to shine the light on someone few of you may have seen, but may have benefited from her volunteering. Lesia (pronounced Lisa) Alexander has been helping us out since 2020. During that time she has helped serve meals for Thanksgiving, Operation Senior Claus, and most recently, the Grab-n-Go dinners Monday thru Friday she can be helping out her sister, Mae Lucero, getting the dinners from the local restaurants, then helping to distribute them to seniors at the center. However, Leisa doesn’t just come here help to serve food. All that work can wear a person out, so when she’s not volunteering, she enjoys coming to the center’s Aerobics Program to boost her cardio. Originally from Meridian, MS, she and her two siblings came out Calif., to live with, and be raised by their big sister Mae, when their mom passed away. After she grew up she went to work for the Dept. of Corrections where she worked for 27 years before retiring. During that time she raised a son, who in turn, gave her a grandchild. Thanks Leisa for helping to ensure that our senior don’t go hungry.

Featured Class

Spanish
Date: April 23, 2020
Time: 1:30 - 2:30 pm
Length: 8 weeks
Cost: $8 members
      $8 non-members
Instructor: TBA
Location: Game Room
Description: This class is designed to teach students conversational Spanish. The class will enable you to carry on limited conversation at first just to get you started. Then as you progress, so will the levels. As for what to bring, just bring a writing instrument and paper. Books might come later. We hope to see you there, or as you will soon be saying, Esperamos verte ahí.

Featured Activity

Line Dancing
Time: Tuesdays 10:15 am to 12:15 pm
Cost: Donation suggested members
      Donation suggested non-members
Location: Exercise Room
Description: This month wed like to shine a light on our Line Dancing class. The class is actually divided into two classes: a beginners and intermediate. The beginner class is taught by long time instructor, Saundra Binney. She has been line dancing since the early 90's, and has been teaching since 2005. She teaches the basic steps, such as the chase, grapevine, weave, triple step, shuffle step, two-step, and lock step. Everything else stems off from the basics. Intermediate is taught by Glenda Lane. Glenda is fairly new to the center but has taught TAP and ballet for 30 years. Glenda also teaches at other centers as well. Her instruction includes silver lining, and stripes. Don't worry if you don't have a partner. You don't need one. It's a group dance. Classes are held in the exercise room on Tuesdays with the beginning class taught from 10:15 am to 11:15 am, with the intermediate class following from 11:15 am to 12:15 pm. The class is donation only. It's up to students as to whether they want to donate. So put on some comfy shoes and get ready to step in line.
Tablet Class
By: Mike Sylva
Who says you can\'t teach an old dog new tricks! 30 of our seniors signed up for a class that would show them how to use their tablets and smartphones. As technology grows by leaps and bounds these days, things designed to make our lives easier, can be difficult to learn how to use. However, thanks to our friends from AT&T, Senator Mike Morrell, Assemblyman Marc Steinorth, and their staff members, they made it easy for our seniors.

The instructors brought in Ipads for each student to use and learn on. If someone brought in their own android based equipment, the teacher and helpers were more than ready to show them how to use that as well.

We hope to be able to have another class soon, as one can’t really master this stuff in a few hours. It takes lots of practice, and the web is perfect for that!