The Way It Was

Today, after mass, I cornered Ollie, a member of the Young At Heart group of Spirit of Christ Catholic Community so I could hear the beginnings of the group.  She mentioned that she and Fulva Pass are the living  founding members. I told her I had a picture from 1987 and she told me that the Young At Heart Senior Ministry began around October of 1978.  "Joan Kohut was the president and there were about 25 persons in the group. When a meeting was held with about twelve members, they were asked to bring a brown-bag lunch." It did not take long before "chefs" began preparing meals. At a past meeting, I met Jo Palozzi and she told me she prepared the first dinner by making pots and pots of spaghetti in her home to later bring to the church to feed the members. "Of course, it was a much smaller group than now," she said.

Ollie remembered doing a lot of recruiting, "If I sat next to a person who looked like a senior, I would start talking to them and invite them to the YAH group."  She laughed when she recalled the fun activities they used to do; a fashion show, a crazy hat day, a day at the horse races, and holiday themed activities. In listening to her talk, I figure that there must have been four or five presidents before I joined the group.

Touch Committe began when the group realized that many of the originators of YAH had passed away and no one seemed to remember them. As they remembered those who were gone, it slowly evolved to other
deaths in the parish. Caring Hearts began when a person she knew was in a nursing home and a few of the YAH members would go visit. When it was seen the joy brought to those being visited, it expanded to more than YAH members. The Crafts group began to make things for the nursing homes and continues to this day.
Baby showers for unwed mothers was another fun activity but the current group does not do it anymore.

Times have changed as the group became larger and she has seen the club evolve to what it is today. The roster shows about 400+ members. For nineteen years she put out the Newsletter and also wrote a history of the YAH group. There are a few copies of the history of YAH floating around and I hope to get a hold of one soon.

I mentioned that the photographs I have put into albums begin around the year 1987 to 2015.  I told her that I have about six thick albums of all the activities with Young At Heart. On April 16, 2015, my intent is to show a slide show with some of the pictures. I figure that before I became the photographer for the group in 2012 there must have been about six other photographers before me. Doris Thompson and Suzanne Fountain were mentioned. Both Ollie and I agreed that it is important to have a photo and written history of the YAH group.