Allan Appel photo
Francine Advincula, with Eneida Arroyo: Music's great, camaraderie's better.
A menu of pollo asado, arroz con gandules, and tres leches for dessert was the centerpiece of a joyous afternoon of gratitude, service, and community love in Fair Haven.
The scene was the annual pre-Thanksgiving lunch at the Atwater Senior Center, where about 100 older folks — regular clients of the five-day-a-week multi-service senior center on Atwater near Grand — were treated like honored holiday guests.
There was bounteous food provided by local restaurants like J & J and Apicella on Grand Avenue, and by anchoring institutions like the Mary Wade Home, where the tres leches were prepared.
The congenial volunteer food preparers and waiters included some 20 people full of a spirit of gracias — neighbors, staffers from the health and other city departments, and no fewer than a dozen police officers (many on their own time).
Several were spotted balancing plates of food from the kitchen en route to the guests and trying to emulate the waiter chops being demonstrated by their two assistant chiefs, Manmeet Bhagtana and David Zannelli.
Asst. Police Chief Manmeet Bhagtana and Grand Avenue Special Services Manager Erik Gonzales preparing plates for guests.
The center is open from 8:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m five days a week and draws about 75 people, largely Latino, each day for lunch and a growing menu of classes including line dancing, tai chi, arts and crafts, and music lessons.
“I learned to play piano here,” said Francine Advincula as she enjoyed a tooth-picked spear of assorted fruit that emerged from a kind of pineapple piñata, one of which was being placed on each of the two dozen tables arrayed throughout the center’s bright main room — which began life decades ago as the gymnasium of the local elementary school.
More enjoyable, and important, than the music or the bingo, Advincula said, was the camaraderie the center offers day in and day out.
“We’re grateful for the people who live around us,” said Fair Haven Alder Sarah Miller, a long-time organizer of the event, although this year the Democratic Ward 14 Co-Chair Ana Juarez took charge.
She helped to bring no fewer than three local school groups to entertain the diners. They included Dominican-style dancers from the Fair Haven Middle School and a fourth-grade class from the Clinton Avenue School led by their teachers Doreen Canzanella and Michael Testa. They entertained, in English and then in Spanish, with selections from the music curriculum centered on the remarkable power of gratitude.
Some kids from the F.A.M.E. (Family Academy of Multilingual Exploration) school also distributed gift bags between the food courses.
“Kids love this,” said Canzanella after applause for the musical performance died down. “Some of them have family members here, and we can give them an experience where they feel joyful and are successful and want to come back again.”
One of those performers, Luis Cruz, gave a confirming thumbs up to the experience; he said he enjoyed it and didn’t feel nervous at all.
Estrella Rivera, who very much enjoys the line dancing activity at Atwater, enjoys lunch and the dance demonstration
Chantel Cave, a management and policy analyst with the city’s department of elderly services, said the intergenerational spirit of the lunch points to some of the new kinds of programs that may be coming to Atwater in the near future.
Attendance is up in general, she reported, across all three senior centers citywide (the other two are in the East Shore and Dixwell/Newhallville) and the idea is to keep finding programs that draw seniors.
They well might include helping seniors to deal safely with technology, she said, along with perhaps other intergenerational activities like a variation on pen-pal programs with local schools.
Miller said that the renovations coming to Atwater – funded in part by $2.3 million in ARPA (American Rescue Plan Act) funding — are designed to make upgrades and flexible expansions so the center’s rooms will lend themselves to programming for young people and adults as well as the seniors.
While most of the changes contemplated are coming to the interior of the building — the surrounding rooms and wonderful main gymnasium space also feature one of the city’s historic WPA murals — the scope might include some features on the outside as well.
By way of example Miller suggested the addition and expansion of gardening beds, an activity that spans generations.
Organizers Ana Juarez, Lee Cruz, and the nearly two dozen volunteers
The overall renovation plans are in the process of being drawn up by the city engineer, Miller reported, and when a solid proposal is in hand, it will be presented to the community.