The Center Connection December 2018

With all the excitement of the Holidays

coming, we want to piggy back off of

the wonderful atmosphere. First, we

would like to welcome our new mainte-

nance person – Eugene Fernandez.

Eugene will be helping with all the light

maintenance of the building, keeping

the grounds looking amazing, and

helping out whenever he is needed.

His infectious smile and cheerful dispo-

sition will help uplift anyone! You will

get to know him more in the next news-

letter when Lori will be interviewing

him.

As for the rest of the Senior Center, I

have been meeting with Lee County

Parks and Recreation Volunteer Coor-

dinator, Kathy Cahill. Kathy and I have

been working together to get the volun-

teer program up and running! I am ex-

cited to announce that we are almost

there – we are now in the process of

getting the word out that if you are vol-

unteering in any compacity for the

Lehigh Senior Center then please go to

http://www.leegov.com/parks and un-

der the left hand tab “volunteer and get

involved”, you will find the volunteer

form along with the background check.

This will get you on your way to be-

coming a volunteer for Lee County

Parks and Recreation! The Lehigh

Acres Senior Center Photo Club will be

taking photos for your name badges on

December 27 about 12:00. Kathy Ca-

hill, the coordinator of Lee County

Parks and Recreation will be at the

Senior Center January 24 for an orien-

tation of ALL volunteers. She will go

over the benefits and perks of being a

Lee County Parks and Recreation.

In other updates, with the help of Parks

and Recreation employees and Linda

Dillon, the outside of the Senior Center

had a huge clean up day! Employees

from Veteran’s Parks and Buckingham

Community Center all took time from

their own parks and responsibilities to

come help with our Center. They spent

the morning cutting tree limbs, racking

leaves, cleaning the back courtyard,

bocce courts, and shuffle board courts.

We are grateful to all the employees,

supervisors and managers who helped

us improve the Senior Center. We also

received a new coat of paint to help

spruce up the building. It will not stop

with the outside. Just this last week,

Eugene started to clean the porch – we

finished scrubbing it! Again, we re-

ceived help from Parks and Recreation

staff. It is wonderful to know that we

have wonderful people willing to help

us update and improve our Senior Cen-

ter.

We have few new classes and pro-

grams that I want to tell you about.

First, is the Friendship Club which will

start up in January. This is to help sin-

gles find people with like interests. Also

if a participant would like to participate

in a call list where someone can call to

check up on them.

The next one is the quilting classes –

we have one on Tuesday which you will

be able to learn and make your own

quilts. We also have one on Friday

which this one is to work together to

make a quilt for different community or-

ganizations.

Another class is our dancercise class –

this one will be taking the place of

Zumba on Monday mornings at 9:15. It

will be taught by Wendy who has been

teaching of 10 years. Another class

which we are hoping to start in the next

few weeks is Filipino martial arts. If you

are interested in this class, please

come see me. We will also be starting

Bocce ball on December 11. We will

posting more information about these

classes. If you have any questions,

please come visit with me!

— Melissa Barry, Director

“We are better throughout the year for having,

in spirit, become a child again at Christmas

time.” — Laura Ingalls Wilder

"I stopped believing in Santa Claus when I was

six. Mother took me to see him in a department

store and he asked for my autograph."

— Shirley Temple

Several senior center members inquired as to why there was no notice of upcoming elections. As you may recall, the election for board mem-bers is to be held the second Friday in January each year. Following the elections there is to be a board meeting open to all members to an-nounce the people who were elected to the board and also the new executive board mem-bers.

In response to these inquiries, it was decided to hold a board meeting open to all members on Monday, November 26th at 11:30 a.m. This meeting was held in the auditorium.

Board members present for the meeting were Marsha Shaver, President; Rose Ann Marr, Treasurer; Ellie Kalecius, Secretary; Linda Dil-lon, Darrell Fratzke, Terry Holman, Connie Del Re-Holck and Chet Olson.

Rose Ann Marr was asked to talk about the agreement with Lee County as she had been a part of the negotiations. Rose Ann stated that as the center was an entity of the county now, the board was now a function of a nonprofit or-ganization. To keep bingo, the Golden Shell, the kitchen and, presumably, the Travel Desk are to be combined in a nonprofit organization. This organization would be formed so that the proceeds of these elements would be used to help support activities of the senior center such has dinners, dances and other activities.

However, this organization needs to be estab-lished. As of right now, this organization has no members. Hence, the board decided there were no members to vote and no members to run for election of the board. Therefore, the board decided to dispense with elections for this coming year.

The board for the new nonprofit organization has been set at seven members. The previous board was 13 members, and it was determined this was too many board members as the new organization will be of smaller scope than the previous board. It was also determined that the board members whose terms did not expire this

coming year (term for board members is three years) would be the board charged with the for-mation of the new nonprofit organization. These board members will be writing new by-laws for the new organization. The board stat-ed that they would be consulting an attorney who has specific knowledge in forming a non-profit group or a “Friends” group to assist with formation, writing of bylaws as well as following the laws of the state of Florida to get this organ-ization functional.

It was the feeling of many of the members who attended the meeting that transparency was needed with the membership of the senior cen-ter during the formation of this new support group. It was requested that either an article be included in the newsletter as to what the board is accomplishing toward this goal or the posting of the meeting minutes in the newslet-ter.

I hope this has answered at least some of your questions regarding the issue of elections for the coming year. I look forward to keeping all members up to date on this and other subjects regarding the new nonprofit entity through the newsletter as well as on the website:

lehighacresseniorcitizenscenter.com

If you have any questions regarding this pro-cess or questions of the board, please contact a board member or e-mail me at roguelady6408@gmail.com. I will forward any questions to the board.

“It is not what you eat between Thanksgiving

and Christmas that counts. It’s what you eat

between Christmas and Thanksgiving.”

—my Grandmother

Lori Hoch — Center Connection Editor

VOLUNTEERS: If you are or you would like to

become a volunteer at the Lehigh Acres Senior

Center, please complete the following steps:

1. Go to leegov.com/parks

2. Click the tab on the left side “volunteer/get

involved” tab.

3. Under information for volunteer services —

click the volunteer application (on line).

4.Fill out the online application. Where it

says “Where do you want to help?” Enter

“Lehigh Acres Senior Center.” — fill out as

much as you can including emergency con-

tact information. Under “Set up your pass-

word” be sure to enter a password between

6 and 30 characters. Be sure you write

down your password. At the bottom

check “I agree” and press continue.

5. Go back to the Volunteer Services page

and click “Background Screening.” Fill out

that form.

If you have any questions, please contact Melis-

sa or go to the computer room. Tim is available

to assist you on Tuesdays from 12:30 to 3:30

and Thursdays from 12:30 to 3:30.

Upcoming Events

On Tuesday, December 4th at 11:00 a.m. we will be decorating the senior center.

Decorating the Gingerbread House: We will be decorating a gingerbread house on Thurs-day, December 6th from 12:30 p.m. to 3:00 p.m. Admission will be $4.00.

Ugly Christmas Sweater is the theme for the upcoming night dance to be held on Thursday, December 6th from 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. Ad-mission is $5.00 at the door. Tina and Barry will be providing the music for the dance.

Holiday Dinner: There will be a holiday dinner on Thursday, December 13th at 12:30 p.m. The cost is $10.50 per person. Please sign up by Thursday, December 6th. The Let’s Enter-tain Group will provide entertainment.

New Year’s Eve Party: On Thursday, De-cember 27th we will have a New Year’s Eve party and dance beginning at 12:30 p.m. Admission is $8.00.

“New Year’s Day is every man’s birthday.”

— Charles Lamb

Lehigh Acres Senior Center – SOCIAL CLUB – All are WELCOME!!!!! November 26, 2018

Upcoming Events - IF YOU SEE A * THERE IS A SIGN UP SHEET – PLEASE CALL LAURA O. AT

(239) 200-1693.

PLEASE JOIN US ON MONDAY MORNINGS AT 10:30AM FOR OUR BRAIN STORMING MEETINGS IN THE LARGE CARD ROOM– BRING YOUR IDEAS WITH INFO AND HELP US MAKE OUR WEEK-ENDS FUN.

* Scrooge – December 8th – 2:00pm FREE – Faith Assembly Church, 7101 Bayshore Rd, N. Ft Myers – leaving LASCC main lot 1pm.

* Christmas Potluck with card club – Tuesday December 11th 11:30am – main card room.

*Christmas Carol Sing – First Presbyterian Church – 2438 2nd St. – downtown Ft Myers – 4pm – leave LASCC main lot 3pm. Bring 2 canned goods, Dec, 11th

*Christmas Cookie Exchange with card club – Monday December 17th 11:30am

*Christmas Dinner at St Raphael’s noon.

*Raisin’ Cane Agricultural Tour – FREE – lunch and bus tour – postponed till January.

*Brewery Bounce – 7 local breweries – Saturday January 19th, starting at 12noon – we will need desig-nated drivers.

New Activities

There are several new activities beginning at

the senior center.

Bocce ball will begin Tuesday, December 11 at

10:00 a.m. Beginners are welcome. If you

would like to learn how to play bocce ball,

please come and join us.

Friendship Group will begin in January. This is

a group where people can meet and make new

friends who share their interests. Please con-

tact Melissa for further information.

Don’t forget the new quilting class on Fridays to

help construct a quilt to donate to a community

organization for fundraising. You can also join

the Tuesday quilting group if you would like to

learn how to quilt.

In observance of the Christmas holiday, the senior center will be closed Monday,

December 24th and Tuesday, December 25th.

We wish you a happy, heathy and very Merry Christmas.

Happy New Year 2019

In observance of the New Year’s holiday, the senior center will be closed Monday,

December 31st and Tuesday, January 1, 2019.

We wish you a safe, healthy and prosperous New Year.