The Senior Center will relocate limited programming to the Neighborhood Community Center (NCC), 1845 Park Ave from Feb. 3 – 5 to allow for termite treatment.
Senior Serv and the Senior Mobility Program will continue services to the NCC.
For a detailed listing of programs and services that will be offered during this time, please pick up a copy of the February edition of “The Chronicle” or visit the City’s Senior Center web page here.
Due to unsafe wind conditions and falling trees, the Bark Park is closed until further notice.
City staff is working as quickly as possible to clean up the fallen trees and branches.
Please call (714) 754-5300 for additional information.
More than 150 seniors were treated to a free breakfast, gift cards and a visit by Jolly Old St. Nick at the annual Senior Center “Breakfast with Santa” event from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Wednesday.
“You look beautiful today,” Costa Mesa CEO Tom Hatch told the festively dressed crowd. “My compliments to the crew. Everything here looks spectacular.”
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Costa Mesa police officers and fire fighters, including Chief Dan Stefano, served breakfast to the delighted crowd, each of whom were also presented with a $5 gift card. The seniors were also treated to Christmas tunes and other melodies by local musician Tom Reich and his accompanist Valerie.
The cards were part of $1,300 raised and donated by city employees.
In addition to a visit by Santa Claus, the seniors played games such as “Pin the nose on Rudolph” and a wreath toss to win raffle prizes.
“It’s probably one of their favorite events,” said Senior Center Program Administrator Yvette Aguilar. “They look forward to this all year long.”
Aguilar also credited the Senior Center staff for the time and work they put in arranging the event.
Four adult and one youth sports league will have limited access to Costa Mesa fields beginning in the fall of 2016, after they failed to meet the city’s new local residential participation guidelines.
In July of 2015, the Costa Mesa City Council adopted a new Field Use and Allocation Policy to provide a clear and concise set of rules and regulations regarding field usage.
Paperwork submitted by the five sports leagues failed to meet the guidelines set forth by the new field use policy.
In accordance with the policy, various users of both youth and adult sports must meet certain requirements in order to use the fields, one of which is verification of local residency and proof that a percentage of those who participate reside in the school district boundaries and/or attend a public or private school within the Newport-Mesa School District boundaries. Using this criteria, sports leagues are placed into six different groups that have priority for field use.
Youth sports groups that either pay coaches and administrators or hold tryouts instead of letting all children play have to meet a higher percentage of local resident participation than youth leagues that are largely recreational in nature.
“The policy was created to ensure that Costa Mesa residents and children who play in recreational programs are at the top of the list when it comes to who gets to use our fields and resources,” said Travis Karlen, the manager of the city’s Parks and Community Services.
Further, by making these field usage changes effective by next fall of 2016, the city is giving these sports leagues ample time to find other options.
“We are letting these groups know they are out of compliance now so that they have enough time to look for other fields for their participants to use,” Karlen said.
To ensure the leagues complied with the policy, city staff worked diligently in requesting rosters and verification documents from each organization to confirm that each one met the required percentage of local residency for the appropriate group classification.
While the original deadline to submit residency verification was Aug. 31, 2015, the deadline was extended to Oct. 30, 2015 to give applicants more time to meet the requirements.
All groups will be notified of the audit results and those who did not meet the guidelines will be given every opportunity to submit the proper paperwork for future consideration.
City staff and ambassadors will continue to enforce the Field Use and Allocation Policy and audits during the spring 2016 season and in subsequent seasons.
The R.O.C.K.S After School Program announced that Rea Elementary is an official R.O.C.K.S site.
As of Nov. 16, the site has a total of 19 children registered.
Participants will partake in homework time, games, sports, enrichment activities, and arts and crafts. In addition, once a week, the Fitness Program will lead R.O.C.K.S participants in interactive and fun health, fitness, and nutritional activities to encourage a healthy lifestyle.
The Parks & Community Services Department announced it has hired a new part-time staff member to who has been assigned solely to the Bark Park.
The staffer works 24 hours a week Monday through Friday. The Bark Park is a heavily-used park which requires daily maintenance and cleaning needs. The maintenance worker is able to fill holes daily to meet safety needs, clean chairs, sweep walkways, monitor public postings, empty trash cans and assess larger maintenance needs.
Having an increased staff presence in the park has also helped with gathering feedback from the regular users in regards to park enhancements as staff moves to create a master plan for overall park improvements.
Fridays at the Costa Mesa Senior Center are a lively and busy time with volunteers, staff and patrons going about their daily activities.
This particular Friday, Oct. 16 is no different. In addition to the usual ballroom, card playing and fitness classes, there is, however, a special presentation taking place in the Grand Hall 2 room; a Guided Autobiography: Family and Friends Storytelling event.
Hosted by the Costa Mesa Senior Center and Volunteer Action for Aging, an organization centered on engaging seniors through volunteerism, this was the grand finale of a month-long adventure of reflection, writing, remembrance and most of all storytelling.
Costa Mesa Senior Center was given the opportunity to participate in this rare occasion. The Guided Autobiography is described as “a semi-structured process for life review that incorporates individual and group experiences with autobiographical writing.”
Participants attended a two-hour class every week for a month. Through guided instruction, in-class exercises and homework, the participants created their own stories; their autobiographies. The process was simple: show up, write and share, but the outcome was so much more. A written legacy for families, written stories from the heart and a month-long class that influenced, enriched and helped a population to remember, to share with others and for many, to share publicly.
During the grand finale, a Guided Autobiography: Family and Friends Storytelling event, one-by-one people like Patty, Marilyn, Rueha, Rochelle, and mother and daughter duo Mary and Barbara told their story. There were stories of life, death, family, marriage, adoption and triumph.
Every story was different and every story was compelling. More importantly, everyone had a story.
Remembering the olive colored skin tone and dark black hair of her mother, “I remember the day mother dyed a bleach streak in her dark hair,” Patty mentions. She begins to get teary eyed as she remembers the way this made her feel.
And as one presenter stated, “Everyone has a story to tell, here is mine.”
A new train has steamed its way in to the doors of the Senior Center.
No, it’s not your typical railway locomotive. It’s a fun and interactive game featuring those small rectangular domino tiles; better known as dominoes and the name of the game is Mexican Train.
A rather new addition to the Costa Mesa Senior Center, Wednesday’s from 1 to 4 p.m., you will likely bump into Guy Richards the class leader, Pat Bingo, Daisy Howard, Frances Sorensen, Margarete Stevenson and Robert Garlbraith to name a few, ready for a fun few hours of Mexican Train.
Daisy and Pat sit at a table together sharing smiles and laugher coupled with moments of intense concentration.
“You just stole my move, “ Daisy says with a laugh. “I’m fighting to get rid of my tiles.”
Mexican Train is an interactive game, encouraging the participants to use elements of strategy, critical thinking and development of a master plan in their moves. Usually the tables are full with the maximum four players at play, but this particular Wednesday, Oct., 21 there are only five players.
A fun-packed and thought-provoking game, Mexican train offers a quiet place with friends, analysis and evaluation coupled with laughter and smiles.
For questions on the Mexican train class or any other classes contact the Senior Center at 949-645-2356.
Between exercise, computer and arts and crafts classes such as the Monday afternoon quilting, the Costa Mesa Senior Center is busier than ever.
It’s likely that on any day of the week visitors to the senior center can find a presentation or seminar occurring, health screenings taking place or a class in progress.
Quilting is one of those classes.
On Mondays, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., you will find women like Dolores Kaiser, Joanie Hunt, Mina Angorani and Marti Reiter, just to name a few, are cutting, talking, laying out patterns and sewing masterpieces together.
With a combined 63 years of experience and donated materials, these women spend their afternoon quilting and talking about life, patterns and swapping opinions on their work. On this particular day, there was talk about Oktoberfest, family and surviving cancer.
But quilting together is not just about a free class on Monday afternoon, it’s also an opportunity for sociability, comradery and the art and craft of quilting and friendship.
When asked if their quilting class is more than just a time to quilt, a smiling Dolores responds, “Oh yes, we are friends and like to talk about things. We have been quilting together for some time.”
To date, these women have donated their works of art to Long Beach Veterans Hospital, Santa Ana Life Center, and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and anticipate donating baby quilts to Camp Pendleton this summer.
The time, effort, love and discussions that go into these quilts not only give these women something to do every Monday afternoon, but it’s a way for them to get together and more importantly, give back.
For questions on the quilting class or to find out how you can donate material contact the Costa Mesa Senior Center at (949) 645-2356.