Forty Years of Togetherness

The 40th Anniversary of Young At Heart would be celebrated at the September dinner. I began working on a booklet in July and researched  two booklets prepared by one of the members. She had not only written the booklets for the 20th and 30th anniversaries but also worked on a newsletter for nineteen years.  I gathered a lot of information from the booklets and newsletters plus speaking with older members of the group though some of their memories were sketchy. Finally, a computer whiz lady and I put the final touches and completed the booklet. I wanted to show the way the group began in 1978 and what we were doing in 2019.

I ordered a t-shirt with the logo of Young At Heart designed by another member and when members saw my t-shirt many ordered one also. On the day of our celebration, we took a picture of some of the group sporting their t-shirts.

Through my years as the photographer for the group I was able to make a DVD showing the different functions of the YAH group and the places visited through out the years. The DVD was shown throughout the celebration for anyone who wanted to look up at the wall where the pictures were showing. I brought nine photo albums representing pictures from around the early 70's to current 2019 pictures.

A skit with some of the men showed them as past pastors of Spirit of Christ that had been involved with the Young at Heart group through the years. Trying to find priest collars was a searching of different ideas. Construction paper, sewing black cloths with white square, a hair band they could slip over their head, and by chance, at the dollar store, I found four black nylon knee highs. I took white paper, made a loop that I scotched taped together and rolled it on to the stocking.  A perfect priest collar that could be tied in the back of the neck. I was able to get comments from the real priests and their words were read by the pretend priests. Our pastor was the real priest who talked about Young at Heart.

At the same time I was working on the celebration other members were also doing their part. The decoration committee did a fabulous job of decorating the tables, another member ordered the cakes and had to take his shirt to the bakery so they could see what he wanted on the cake, Starburst candies had to be purchased to give to the September birthdays because Starbursts were given in the past. (At the October lunch the club will revert back to giving out Hershey candy bars!) The kitchen help spend hours preparing for the delicious meal and the helpers who served and cleaned up also put in their time. Two persons who buy and bring the drinks to the dinner also did their part of having the drinks ready after mass.  The president of the group explained the function of each Board member and mentioned that YAH could not function if it wasn't for all the helping hands ready to do their part. Some singers led the group in the theme song: Young At Heart by Frank Sinatra.

A special thanks for this 40th Anniversary to our pastor who celebrated mass before the group went to dinner. Also, to the many persons who attended the fun-filled affair. It may have been a lot of work, but YAH continues to function with the many beautiful Young At Heart members!