Coastside Gives Day is May 6th this year and our Coastside Gives webpage is ready here to receive donations. We are so grateful to the many people who supported Senior Coastsiders in previous years. Through the amazing generosity of two longtime supporters, we have a match of $20,000 which we are confident will help us reach our goal of $70,000.
You can also give to Senior Coastsiders directly by going to the Donate tab on our website and clicking on the Donate Now option. While you are there, check out the animated videos we’ve created for this year’s campaign which celebrate all the little things our staff and volunteers do that make a big difference in the lives of Coastside seniors.
Thank you to all our wonderful Coastside Gives donors for their on-going support.
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The California Master Plan for Aging: How Does it Benefit You?
May 14, 10:00-11:30am
Panel Discussion - Learn from elected officials how they plan to incorporate the five goals of The California Master Plan on Aging in their work. Following the panel there may be time for community questions and discussion. Look for more details further down.
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Updates, Virtual Classes & Activities |
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Call Senior Coastsiders at 650-726-9056 for further information on classes or upcoming events. To see regularly scheduled weekly classes, be sure to scroll down to the last section of this email. |
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COVID testing at Senior Coastsiders - SUSPENDED. Due to low attendance, we are suspending the 1st and 3rd Thursday COVID testing at 925 Main Street. Weekly testing is still available every Monday from 3:00-6:00pm at the Ted Adcock Center at 535 Kelly Street. For more information on the city's testing, go to their website HERE. |
Virtual Mystery Book Club This group meets the first Wednesday of each month (May 5th this month) at 1:00pm. The group will be discussing American Spy, by Lauren Willkinson. For the Zoom link, please contact hatmore@seniorcoastsiders.org. Future books can be picked up at the Senior Coastsiders office at 925 Main Street.
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Speaking of books, if you live on the Senior Campus, you can have your Half Moon Bay Library books delivered to the Senior Coastsiders office for pick up. To get your name on the list for this service, please call 1-833-YES-SMCL or email halfmoonbay@smcl.org.
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One more thing about books! Senior Coastsiders and San Mateo County Libraries are excited to unveil free eBook Stops, making thousands of eBooks available in just a few easy steps with a wireless device. Readers can simply visit an eBook Stop, connect to its free Wi-Fi and the webpage, and then begin browsing popular titles available in English and Spanish. You don’t need a library card, mobile app, data plan or your own Wi-Fi connection to read these eBooks. There are no holds or wait times, so you can begin reading immediately or save the book in your browser to read from home.
The eBook Stop is located in the downstairs lobby at 925 Main Street.
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Music and Trivia through the SMC Libraries. Enjoy some zoom music trivia on Friday, May 7th at 4:00pm. The trivia themes include Broadway, television, artist retrospectives, and even a “Musical Road Trip” with state and city trivia. Our host, Ben Pernick, also mixes in fun word games on the topics including a modified version of the popular party game “Scattergories”. Ben is a board-certified music therapist with 7 years’ experience creating engaging experiences for seniors. Learn more and register HERE.
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Senior Coastsiders Cookbook Senior Coastsiders will be producing a cookbook to be available in time for the holidays. Do you have an old family recipe with a story, or a favorite recipe that you are known for? We are collecting recipes from our extended Senior Coastsiders family - donors, participants, volunteers, and staff. There are multiple ways to submit. To learn more, click HERE. |
Older Americans Month - Virtual Celebrations. Celebrate being an older, wiser, vivacious adult the entire month of May with almost daily activities. For a full list of activities, check out the schedule of events HERE.
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NEW! - Pickle Ball - Wednesdays and Fridays in the back parking lot. Pickleball is a paddleball sport (similar to a racquet sport) that combines elements of badminton, table tennis, and tennis. Suggested donation is $2.00. New players welcome during the first hour, second hour geared toward more experienced players. Wednesdays from 10:00am-Noon, Fridays from 11:30am to 1:30pm. Learn more about pickleball HERE.
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Home Repair Program We will be holding a scaled down Home Rehab Day on June 5th. If you are in need of minor home repairs, please contact hatmore@seniorcoastsiders.org or download the application here as soon as possible. Or, if you are interested in volunteering to do some repairs, please reach out to hatmore@seniorcoastsiders.org!
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Online Smart Phone Classes Having difficulty hearing or seeing on your smart phone? Attend a free online training and make your smart phone work better for you! Learn how to make your phone louder and easier to hear, how to send text messages, how to turn your phone into a magnifier, how to connect Bluetooth devices, how to operate basic functions of your phone and much more! These two-part online trainings are presented by California Telephone Access Program. iPhone and Android sessions are ongoing. To participate, you will need a computer, internet service, a valid email address AND your smart phone! To register, contact Crystal Lin at clin@ddtp.org or call 510-207-8609.
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Computer Tutoring and Computer Donation and Loaner Program Limited computer tutoring has resumed and is available by appointment. Additionally, through the dedication of two high school students, we are ready to put laptops into the hands of those who need them! We also have loaner laptops provided by the Half Moon Bay Library. Please call our office for more details.
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Meatless May
This May, use the power of your plate to help fight climate change! Enter Acterra’s “Meatless May” challenge: a pledge to choose more fruits, veggies, whole grains, and legumes while moving meat and dairy products to the side, or off your plate entirely. If this is new, try going meatless one day a week. Request support through Acterra and throughout the month Acterra will provide weekly themes, recipes, healthy tips, and even a buddy who can guide you through your questions, menu planning, and grocery lists. There's even some great money-saving rewards at specific Bay Area restaurant partners. Sign up for free at acterra.org/meatless-may.
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Scam Alert!
Californians are experiencing a new medicare scam involving aggressive marketing techniques. It's believed a company or private party is posing as an insurance broker specializing in Medicare Advantage Plans. They use deceptive marketing material to convince you to change your coverage. Changing plans suddenly can cause service disruption because prior coverage can only be restored as of the 1st of the following month.There is an open enrollment period every year that allows you to research and safely change plans. For 2022 coverage the dates are October 15-December 7, 2021. HICAP (Health Insurance Counseling and Advocacy Program) provides free, confidential one-on-one counseling, education, and assistance to help individuals and their families on Medicare. For more information please call Tracey at 650-726-9056 or HICAP at 650-627-9350.
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2021 Environmental Series |
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Building on the momentum of the climate change programming that was completed in 2020 through partnerships with the Office of Sustainability of San Mateo County and the City of Half Moon Bay, Senior Coastsiders is excited to offer a monthly program dedicated to climate change and environmental engagement. Look for the Evergreen Coastsiders logo and a new program each month.
To register for the May event, click HERE or click the flyer below. For more information, go to the county's website at https://bit.ly/3cST0kb.
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Local Hazard and Mitigation Plan Survey San Mateo County is vulnerable to many natural hazards - including earthquakes, wildfire, flooding, coastal erosion, and heat events. The County is developing an update to its current plan to reduce risks from hazards countywide, and wants to hear from you about your experiences with all types of hazards. The survey will help the County gauge the level of knowledge community members have about the region's top hazards. The information you provide will directly support the development of strategies and actions to reduce the risk of death, injuries and property damage caused by disasters. Access the survey in multiple languages below:
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Supporting Senior Coastsiders |
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Do you shop on Amazon? Did you know that every time you buy something through Amazon, you could be supporting Senior Coastsiders? Visit smile.amazon.com and sign in with your Amazon.com credentials. Search and choose Senior Coastsiders as your charitable organization and start shopping! Add a bookmark for smile.amazon.com to make it even easier to return and start your shopping at AmazonSmile!
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A Note from the Executive Director
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The team at Senior Coastsiders is counting down the days until Coastside Gives on May 6th. With 59 local nonprofits and organizations participating this year there are opportunities for our Coastside community to give to such a wide variety of worthy causes. We know you have many choices and are grateful if Senior Coastsiders is on your giving list.
This year our Coastside Gives campaign has focused not only on our major programs - healthy and delicious meals, care management, home repairs (we will have a scaled down home repair day on June 5th this year), and classes and activities - but also the many little things we do every day that make a difference in the lives of the seniors we serve.
To make sure we are optimally positioned to continue providing the highest quality and most relevant services when we re-open, our offices closed for a day in April to allow us to focus on planning for the time we can welcome participants back to our Center. We held a second retreat the following week to discuss our recently developed 3-year organizational strategic plan. These discussions included programs, special events, marketing, and community outreach. Thank you to all those in our community who helped inform these retreats by completing the survey we sent out recently.
While working at the individual level is essential to what we do, we are also fostering relationships with legislators and legislative staff at the state and local level to improve funding, programs and services provided to seniors.
On May 5th Senior Coastsiders will participate virtually in Senior Advocacy Day with Senators Scott Wiener and Josh Becker and Assemblymembers Phil Ting, Kevin Mullin, and Marc Berman.
On May 14th we are part of the organizing committee of a panel discussion with Senator Josh Becker, Assemblymembers Kevin Mullin, Mark Berman, and Phil Ting, and Supervisors David Canepa, and Don Horsley. These elected officials will be discussing how they plan to incorporate the five goals of the California Master Plan on Aging in their work. To participate in this event please go to our website to register HERE or by clicking on the flyer above.
We are optimistic that our approach of focusing on the moment while at the same time considering the future will yield positive outcomes – as suggested by Thomas Edison, “Good fortune is what happens when opportunity meets with planning.”
Very best wishes
Sandi
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Unstoppable Seniors (US)
by Casey McClung
In a society where aging is oftentimes equated with ill health and vulnerability, it is important to remember that societal preconceptions cannot define us, and each one of us can write our own story of aging. The world is full of people who had some of their finest moments only after they became seniors. We’ll be highlighting some of these Unstoppable Seniors in the months to come because their story is also a part of our story.
Here is a story of US:
Contributed by Meg Redden about her friend Eva Seidenzahl
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Eva Seidenzahl was one of the most prolifically creative people I have ever known. Reminding me of my grandmother, she made jewelry, rugs, hats, scarves, sweaters, wall hangings, stuffed animals and more using her own creative ideas. In her last years, she picked up the hobby of remodeling doll houses and making miniature furnishings. She said she needed to live to be 105 to finish everything, but unfortunately she died in February of 2020 at the young age of 88.
What attracted me to Eva in the first place was her positive, can-do spirit. She was born in Berlin, Germany in 1931. Rather than dwell on that heart-wrenching childhood, she would smile and say, “Difficult times make us appreciate the good times." When things got hard she usually said, “It could be worse.”
What made her unstoppable in my eyes were her dollhouse creations. One day she came home carrying an old dilapidated wooden shell of a doll house that had been retrieved from the trash heap. Mindless of the small space in her studio apartment, Eva began her DOLLHOUSE EMPIRE. She cleaned and repaired the house; and painted it what she called “ice cream colors” – bright pink, lime green, yellow, red and orange. I thought it was fabulous at that point, but she had visions of turning it into a “real home”. As the house had only open spaces for doors and windows, Eva’s amazing mind went into gear and began creating windows and doors that actually opened and closed. She even fashioned a staircase and bannister rail to lead upstairs. Her favorite part of a project was figuring out how to make something work. I think she could have been an engineer. She used wood scraps, floral duct tape, old glass beads and anything else she could repurpose. A coaster and a mouse pad were Persian rugs. Floor coverings were brightly colored fabric glued to felt. Part of the stair railings were Q-tip stems. With a twinkle in her eye, she told me she had to create a 2nd floor bannister or “everyone would fall down the hatch”.
Eva then started building furniture for the inhabitants of this beautiful home. She built chairs and beds from blocks of wood covered with padding and fabric. A gauzy gift bag became a lovely bedspread. She found tiny battery operated floating lights which became table lamps and a miniature flashlight served as a floor lamp.
When she realized that the house had no kitchen, she built a free-standing “cook house” from cast off materials. I was constantly amazed at the new things her playful mind could think up.
When Eva ordered a few things from miniatures.com, she discovered that the catalog had a dollhouse creation contest. She ordered the Creatin’ Contest kit and began to create a totally different dollhouse, which was a cabin named “Summer In The Wild”, inspired by her favorite TV show, “Alaska, the Last Frontier”. The unfinished kit contained walls, doors and roof material which needed to be put together. Eva created this cabin from her own fertile imagination. I loved the bright yellow bunk beds with green blankets she made and the outdoor mossy foundation she built stone by stone. Every time we found a discarded dollhouse we would drag it home and she would start again on another imaginary home until there were nine dollhouses in that small apartment.
I always felt better after visiting Eva because she was having so much fun with her life. In writing her memoir, she wanted to impart to people that we can each choose to be happy no matter how old we are or how much pain we have. She urges us all to find something that we love to do and “just do it”. She thought that we would live longer if we stopped worrying about what’s not right, stop waiting to win the lottery and be happy within ourselves…and remember – “It could be worse!”
Here’s to Unstoppable Seniors everywhere!
Do you know an Unstoppable Senior? Maybe someone local? Let us know! We would love to share their story! Email Casey at cmcclung@seniorcoastsiders.org
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Outdoor Zumba Gold Join instructor Laurie Becker on Friday mornings in the back parking lot for a 10:30-11:15 am Zumba Gold class. This is perfect for older adults who are looking for a modified Zumba class that recreates the original moves you love at a lower intensity. Space is limited, please call the Senior Coastsiders office at 650-726-9056 for more information. Cost is $5.00 per class. Class will continue as long as weather permits.
Pilates Classes with Karen continue online from 9:00-10:00am every Tuesday and are free of charge. Email Karen at kpilates@sonic.net to get signed up. This class is currently only open to those who have taken Karen's classes in the past.
Art Every Day! Mary Kay Jolley offers painting class online through an email format as well as once weekly live class (and previous classes are available on Youtube). To get on the class mailing list, email jolleyart@comcast.net
Functional Mobility with Kimm Ronberg continues on Wednesdays 9:00-10:00am via Zoom. Email Kimm at kimm@beyourstrong.com for the link to the class.
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Gentle Yoga LindaGrace is offering Gentle Yoga on Mondays and Wednesdays from 11:00am-12:15pm. Contact LindaGrace at lindagrace@wisewoman-yoga.com to sign up.
Rosen Classes continue on the regular schedule with Jetta and Kate. For Mondays at 9:30am, and Wednesdays at 10:30am, email hatmore@seniorcoastsiders.org to receive the invitation to the Zoom classes. For Kate's Friday class at 11:00, email Kate O'Shea at kate.oshea.pt@gmail.com. Class fee is based on a sliding scale and can be paid via Paypal or by check.
Jetta's Balance Class for Seniors - Jetta will take participants through a series of exercises focused on increasing balance and reducing falls. Join Jetta on Thursdays at 10:30 am by contacting hatmore@seniorcoastsiders.org
Qigong with Judy Pruzinsky - Tuesday afternoons 1:00-2:00pm and Thursday evenings 7:30-8:30pm. Please contact Judy for more information.
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Other Resources & Activities |
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RotaCare Coastside is open for phone visits. Patients can schedule phone visits by calling 650-388-2340. Please leave a message including your name, date of birth, and phone number, and the Clinic Manager will return your call to schedule a telephone encounter.
Friendship Line - California - Even in these challenging times, friendship is always a phone call away. Discover how the Friendship Line is growing to connect to more Californian seniors. Available 24 hours a day and ready to connect, call (888) 670-1360.
The California Peer-Run Warm Line is a free, non-judgmental, emotional, non-emergency support line that allows people with mental health challenges to talk to a peer who is trained to help. The phone number is (855) 845-7415. Chat is also available at https://www.mentalhealthsf.org/peer-run-warmline/.
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Community News You Can Use! |
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We take great pride in our community partnerships and view them as one more way to help provide resources to the older adult community. |
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If you are vaccinated, you may still be wondering what is safe or unsafe to do. Take a look at this quick chart below. To see it larger and with more detail, click on the image. |
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San Mateo County homeowners can get $1,250 when they install a solar + battery system under the Power On Pensinula program. Find out more or apply at PenCleanEnergy.com/POP-homeowner.
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Did you know that PG&E has a rate plan for owners of electric vehicles? With new rate plans going into effect in San Mateo County in the Fall, this is a good time to make sure you're taking advantage of any rate plans that could save you money on your electricity bill. Visit pge.com/ratechoices to learn more.
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If you need assistance with shopping, would like to sign up for meals on wheels, need a mask, or need other assistance, we are just a phone call away! Please call our office at 650-726-9056. |
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Please forward to anyone you think might benefit from this information! |
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