SYRACUSE, NY (NCC News) – It’s been about a year since the pandemic struck. No group was affected more than seniors in Central New York. Right now for men and women age 55 and up, all they can really do is wave from a distance. Seniors congregated in the parking lot of the Center Woods Senior Center on Thursday to pick up their COVID-resource bag and get a glimpse of their friends they once spent time with.
“I enjoy coming here a couple of times per week, just to meet people and get out. Instead of sitting at home,” said Andrea Danes, 69, of Baldwinsville.
Without the simple activities like knitting, bingo and billiards that Danes and her friends enjoyed before the pandemic, the seniors are suffering from more than just the high risk of the pandemic.
“It’s been kind of lonesome because we used to interact with the other people,” said Nelly Schlatt. “I was the coordinator of the bingo, so I call bingo every few weeks. It’s just kind of boring at times now.”
Schlatt and her husband met at Center Woods three years ago while playing bingo. While they needed the essential PPE in the resource bags they received, the real need they filled in the parking lot was the need for fresh air.
“It keeps us connected with a number of people,” said Schlatt’s husband Nanzelli Parey. “We play bingo on zoom. It’s really important things to keep us connected, waiting for the day we return.”
So, while everything is shut down and Central New York remains socially distant, all the seniors in the region can do is just honk the horn, and make it through the pandemic.
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Central New York seniors socialized from a distance outside of the Center Woods Senior Center while picking up their COVID-resource bags.
© 2000 Brad Klein
