O’Neill celebrates Senior Center Month
Maxine Truex, armed with nickels, boards and cake, is ready for the first bingo game. (Photo Provided)
Vicky Boley, who got the first “bingo” of the morning, checks her nickel bingo boards. Residents buy boards for a nickel each, for each game. The nickel pots go to the winners of the games. Volunteer Julia Hinzman from Buckeye Hills Regional Council was the money counter. (Photo by Nancy Taylor)
O’Neill Executive Director Connie Huntsman, left, with Waterview Pointe District Director of Business Development Matthew King and Waterview Pointe Admission Director Kyla Smith, show off the cake Waterview Point brought to celebrate National Senior Center Month. (Photo by Nancy Taylor)
Patty Davis gets a bite of cake and a surprise photo before bingo. (Photo Provided)
Maxine Truex, armed with nickels, boards and cake, is ready for the first bingo game. (Photo Provided)
Vicky Boley, who got the first “bingo” of the morning, checks her nickel bingo boards. Residents buy boards for a nickel each, for each game. The nickel pots go to the winners of the games. Volunteer Julia Hinzman from Buckeye Hills Regional Council was the money counter. (Photo by Nancy Taylor)
O’Neill Executive Director Connie Huntsman, left, with Waterview Pointe District Director of Business Development Matthew King and Waterview Pointe Admission Director Kyla Smith, show off the cake Waterview Point brought to celebrate National Senior Center Month. (Photo by Nancy Taylor)
Patty Davis gets a bite of cake and a surprise photo before bingo. (Photo Provided)
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MARIETTA – It was another good morning at the O'Neill Center Thursday. Seniors got to eat their cake and bingo, too.
Kyla Smith and Matthew King from Waterview Pointe came bearing door prizes and a large sheet cake, decorated to celebrate National Senior Center Month with the O'Neill crowd. The cake was decorated with a row of colorful pumpkins and inscribed, "For all the light you bring into the lives of others, we celebrate Senior Center Month."
O'Neill Center Executive Director Connie Huntsman announced the cake with a "huge thank you to Waterview Pointe" and the seniors chimed in with applause and "wooo!" cheers.
As Huntsman went over announcements of flu shots, the murder mystery dinner, a wooden scarecrow craft, pumpkin painting, a pie bake-off and a pepperoni pizza and punch lunch, the seniors ate cake and got set up for their weekly nickel bingo event. Some of the seniors agreed to talk about their favorite parts of the Marietta senior center.
"Bingo," was Sharon Johnson's first reply. "And I get my blood pressure checked here. And we can take trips. I'm going on a train ride to Akron pretty soon."
"Same as her. Bingo's number one," said Ed Engle, sitting across the table. He had just finished trading his serving of cake with Johnson's, so she could have more icing. "Here, this has lots of icing," he offered in the trade.
"And I'm very sweet, too," Johnson said, staying with the theme.
Johnson then nodded to a group of women two tables away who might like to talk about the center.
"They're really active here," she said. "They do a lot."
The table group she pointed to included Sandy Carver, Darlene Pomroy, Vicky Boley, Sharon Chambers and Joyce Morris.
"We're always here," said Morris, who is a greeter at Walmart several days a week. "I tell the people I see, 'You should go check out the O'Neill Center, you'd really like it.' Word of mouth is the best advertising."
"I've made a lot of friends here," one of them added.
"It's nice to see the people who work here, too," another said. "It's nice to see Kaleigh (Wolfe) and Spenser (Allen). We've got two men who work here, Dan (Hamilton) and Spenser, and they're our main men." Wolfe is the center's development coordinator, Allen handles front desk reception and Hamilton is maintenance guru.
For the question of what those at the table like most about the center, ever-popular bingo popped up again, along with euchre, all the parties, the crafts and special activities. The real answer, though, came in slightly different words from each in the group: just to have a special, safe place to go, to get out, to be with people, to see friends, to make friends.
Nancy Taylor can be reached at ntaylor@newsandsentinel.com