Sharing stories, dining together, playing billiards, chatting over cards and celebrating holidays are just some activities hosted by senior centers.

Unfortunately, most in-person events at these centers have been cancelled indefinitely because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

This forced Thames Valley Council for Community Action to halt so-called “congregate dining services.” TVCCA did so reluctantly because so many count on senior center meals as a “nutritional mainstay,” TVCCA Senior Marketing & Development Director Megan Brown said.

This in turn increased the need for more Meals on Wheels deliveries – raising the annual count of over 225,000 meals for 1,200 seniors by 38 percent in New London, Windham and parts of Tolland counties.

Prior to the pandemic, “folks may have had family members that were doing the shopping for them. Or they may have been going with the senior center (van) for shopping,” said Carolyn McAuliffe, outreach administrator at the Rose City Senior Center in Norwich.

She surmises that now seniors don’t really want to go into stores and family members might not be doing the shopping as much for them for their own safety.

In addition to the nutrition seniors receive, the Meals on Wheels Program gives them contact with the drivers, helping them not to feel so isolated, said Michael Wolak, director of the Rose City Senior Center.

“So they’re seeing a friendly face on most days of the week,” Wolak said. “If they have a specific issue, they may voice it to the Meals on Wheels drivers who can take it back to their supervisors at TVCCA.... So that aspect I would say is just as important: to have human contact on a daily basis for the seniors that may be shut in.”

Wolak pointed out that a driver might even notice a significant change in the person they’re delivering meals to and get them help.

“Somebody does have to be homebound to qualify (for Meals on Wheels), but that doesn’t mean that they can never leave their house,” McAuliffe said. “It more or less means that they’re no longer driving. As long as they’re over the age of 60, I do a referral over to TVCCA and they get them on the route within usually a week or so. That has been a huge help to a lot of our folks.”

Ways to stay connected

McAuliffe said most of the individuals who reach out to her regularly are doing “pretty well” and those who have a cat or dog are greatly comforted by them.

Those who used to come to the senior center Monday through Friday for socialization “are being hit the hardest,” she said, and “are struggling a little bit more than some that may have more family involved or have friends outside of the senior center that they’re still speaking to on a regular basis.”

Sometimes she said the solution is helping individuals to problem solve about their interests, hobbies or activities that they haven’t done in a while.

The younger seniors, who are very “tech savvy,” have been able to connect to American Association of Retired Persons and senior centers’ Zoom meetings for exercise programs and educational talks that are promoted in the newsletter “Voices” and distributed around town and to the senior-housing complexes.

“Then we have our older group. They don’t have the devices; they don’t have the computer skills to do that. My advice would be if you are struggling, reach out. Even sometimes speaking to somebody like myself once a week through the winter and talking about how things are going is all that people need,” McAuliffe said.

She said she is concerned about people’s safety and encourages them “to limit being around a lot of people.”

Overall, McAuliffe said they have been doing very well keeping themselves safe. “Only one person has disclosed that they contracted the virus and recovered fine from it. So I think they’re heeding the warnings.”

This year, she said she assumes the same travel restrictions for Thanksgiving will apply to Christmas as well, which will be a challenge.

“So family members may not be able to come into the state if they live out of state in certain areas of the country. That’s something I will be touching base with my folks about” to find out their plans.

McAuliffe thinks it would be a good idea if people “get a meal on that day, so they do see somebody and wish them a Merry Christmas (or other appropriate greeting).”

Also, she said many people look out for their neighbors, especially if they are elderly, and she is hoping that happens this year. Thoughtful gestures like calling them to wish them a happy holiday, giving them a hot meal or leaving them cookies, cards or a gift on the front step, she said, means a lot to shut-in seniors.

A majority of McAuliffe’s work involves helping low-income seniors who live alone. This runs the gamut from helping them request food stamps to filling out affordable-senior housing applications so they can get on the waiting list.

Sometimes she said she gets referrals from neighbors, because they haven’t seen someone in a while or they say, ‘She doesn’t look good.’”

Since she began in 2012, McAuliffe said she only had one or two people who needed help filing for unemployment. Since the pandemic began in March, however, she said she had 10 to 15 seniors who have needed to set up unemployment-compensation accounts online, because that is the only way to do it right now.

McAuliffe also helps seniors sign up or change Medicare Savings Programs, Medicare Prescription Drug Plans and Medicare Advantage Plans during open enrollment, which ends Dec. 7.

“Anybody that I speak to regarding Medicare, I always encourage them to call me during open enrollment to screen the plans for the new year. They change drastically sometimes year to year. I’m finding there are a lot of changes for 2021, so I am having a lot of people switch into less expensive plans.”

Wolak said he looks forward to resuming daily exercise programs, computer assistance and interactions at the coffee shop, pool tables and card-playing games at some point in the new year.

“It’s been really sad not having people walk through these doors on a daily basis,” he said.

One in-house program that is now up and running is the Rose City Senior Center’s podiatry service, which McAuliffe said is a “blessing,” because it is offered at an affordable cost.

To get the word out, Wolak said they used a robocall system to reach people who used the service yearly in the past.

“Within an hour, I had 50 phone calls, he said. “You’re staying in your vehicle when you get here the day of your appointment until somebody comes out and gets you. ... We’ve had about four or five of the foot-care clinics so far and they’ve all gone very smoothly and very safely.”

Wolak emphasized that even though some of the staff works remotely sometimes, they still receive their messages.

“Don’t hesitate to call here for anything. We’ve had some very bizarre and spur-of-the-moment requests that we’ve been able to fulfill since March,” which included picking up things for people or bringing a service dog to the vet.

Also, three full-time drivers are still providing medical transportation, bringing people shopping or shopping for them.

Jan Tormay, a lontime Norwich resident, now lives in Westerly.

Just the facts

The Rose City Senior Center is located at 8 Mahan Drive in Norwich.

Telephone: (860) 889-5960.

Hours: Monday through Friday 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. with calls monitored until 4 p.m.