Organizers hope online video chats will give seniors a fun, social outlet.
Another program for seniors who may be feeling isolated or just want to make some new friends has cropped up. All they need now are participants.
Cindy Noble, manager of the Sister Kennedy Center, is the organizer of weekly Zoom calls to connect seniors.
The idea for the weekly call was brought up by Noble at the Sister Kennedy Centre board meeting in mid-February. Noble said the idea was met with positivity and since then they have created a committee.
“Everybody was quite happy,” Noble said. “We got together last week and we discussed how we were going to do it. I’ve got a couple of women on board with me to give me some ideas and help me if I need it.”
Noble is hoping to get participants soon to get the program going.
Noble said she will be mediating the Zoom meetings in the beginning and plans to split participants into smaller groups based on their interests.
“I don’t want to have more than six or seven in a group because otherwise you’ll find that there’s one or two that dominate more and I thought I’d try to split them up into what their interests are and I’d have to talk to them about that,” Noble said.
Noble adds that she has consulted Andrea Avis, coordinator of the Senior Companion Project, to help the committee think of discussion topics.
Noble said each meeting would be about 40 minutes long and there would be a topic to start each meeting and some other topics on the sidelines in case it quiets down. This is to try to keep the conversation going and to make each meeting different, Noble added.
“I thought maybe we could do something different, change it up a little bit to get them talking about maybe what they’ve been doing to pass the time or something that they did in the past, when they went on a trip someplace that was a lot of fun, we’ll talk about that,” Noble said.
Participants must provide their own device to participate in the Zoom meeting but Noble said she is looking into putting a call out for people to donate devices they do not use.
“Just to get the people that are alone able to talk and see somebody rather than just talking to them on the phone, which is fine but if you can see them as well, it’s a little bit better,” Noble said.
Noble said she is unsure of how the program will turn out yet, but hopes residents will be interested.
“I’m hoping we get a lot but it might take a while or I might only get a few to start with and then if they really enjoyed talking and everything’s going good, others might join in too later,” Noble said.
Those interested in joining the Zoom meetings can contact Noble at 807-274-6743 or 807-271-2021.
