By BRENDA BURNS
NEWPORT — When words fail, music speaks to help express feelings that cannot be expressed easily. We all want to be forever young, but reality is time marches on. To everything, there is a season and this is true as we age.
Our children begin life in the infancy stage, then off to toddling around and before we know it, they are teenagers. As time keeps on slippn’, slippin’, slippen’…..into the future, we are watching them walk down the aisle in a cap and gown getting ready to graduate and start a life of their own until one day they have their own child.
Like it or not, when this happens, you are going to be the grandpa telling stories that bring back a period of time and moments that are now a memory. You are going to wonder where did the years go and how did it go by so fast.
As silver becomes a familiar color, you will learn what it is like to be a senior all over again. You are not going to want to feel that you are not as good as you once were. Despite the stereotypes as you age, you are going to want to yell from the mountaintops, I don’t need your rocking chair. You are going to want to be just as excited to become a senior again as you were when you were when you became a senior in high school.
Who are you going to share those stories with when the children and grandchildren are too busy to spend as much time with you? The answer is, with your friends at the Newport Senior Center.
How are you going to stay healthy so you can climb that mountaintop you are going to yell from? It’s simple; get involved in the many exercise programs available at the Newport Senior Center.
How will others be able to understand the changes in your life? When you participate at the Newport Senior Center, you will be with your peers that are experiencing the same life changes. How will you prevent isolation, loneliness and depression? Simple, volunteer and get involved at the Newport Senior Center.
You may not be a senior now, but there are people dedicated to preserving a safe haven for you when you do reach that milestone. These are people who are living on fixed incomes and volunteering hours of services to raise funds that will preserve your future.
Take a stand in securing your future. Consider making a donation to the Newport Senior Center Renovation project. This project is expanding the center so that more activities can be provided. Activities that are a variety depending on the likes of those who frequent the center.
The project is bringing the facility up to current code requirements that will result in a safe facility for at least 20 years. The board of director’s is working on a strategic plan that will establish a contingency fund that will help with maintaining the center and avoid high cost repairs like we are facing today. Follow the path of the director’s and preserve your future today!
(Brenda Burns is Executive Director of the Sullivan County Nutrition Services based at the Newport Senior Center,)
As your daily newspaper, we are committed to providing you with important local news coverage for Sullivan County and the surrounding areas.