NORTHAMPTON, Pa.- It\u2019s been a couple of months since Northampton County announced it could no longer financially support two of the county\u2019s senior centers, due to a reduction in revenue coming from the state.<\/p>\n
One of those centers, at 902 Lincoln Avenue in Northampton borough, later reopened as an all-volunteer led effort.<\/p>\n
On Monday, 69 visited the rebranded Grace Senior Social Club to see how they\u2019re doing.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday is Bingo. Mondays and Fridays are Bingo. They love their Bingo,\u201d explained Natalie Becker, as she welcomed seniors to the fellowship hall at Grace United Church of Christ.<\/p>\n
Shortly after that, Becker took her seat near the front of the room and began calling numbers. \u201cB 12!\u201d \u201cO 64!\u201d<\/p>\n
Becker lives nearby and began teaching tech classes at the center as a volunteer last year. \u201cIt went from coming once a week to teach a class to like three times a week just to hang out and chitchat and play games,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
When she got wind of the county\u2019s plan to close the senior center, she was devastated. Even though she has a fulltime job- working overnights at a bakery- she volunteered to step up and keep the center going, at least on a part time basis.<\/p>\n
Becker\u2019s efforts have the support of longtime attendees, like Jean Faust. She began visiting the Northampton Senior Center 15 years ago with her mother. Now, after losing her husband last year, she relies on the center more than ever for support. \u201cFriendship is very important,\u201d Faust said. \u201cIt\u2019s like a family here.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Grace Senior Social Club is open Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays from 9 a.m. until 1 p.m. Food is served on each of those days. Becker usually cooks on Mondays; the gang gets sandwiches from a local deli on Wednesdays, and Fridays are pizza Fridays, a chance to sample the goods from nearby pizzerias.<\/p>\n
In addition to Bingo, there are other activities on the weekly agendas, like a recent field trip to the nearby Roxy Theatre.<\/p>\n
Attendance hasn\u2019t been as strong as what it previously was, when the county was involved, Becker said. \u201cStill, I like to call it the faithful 15. We have the same 15 people, they come every day. It\u2019s nice to see those faces.\u201d But she hopes that dependable base will continue to grow as the club finds its footing.<\/p>\n
The county paid the group\u2019s rent at the church through the end of December. They hope to stay put in the new year. Those details are being worked out. In the meantime, the door is open on Lincoln Avenue.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want this to be an invitation for people to come, check us out,\u201d said Becker.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NORTHAMPTON, Pa.- It\u2019s been a couple of months since Northampton County announced it could no longer financially support…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":271517,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[153,155,154,11975,524,11558,114321,4729,17763,114322,2920,4345],"class_list":["post-271516","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem","tag-bethlehem-headlines","tag-bethlehem-news","tag-bingo","tag-community","tag-friendship","tag-grace-senior-social-club","tag-northampton","tag-senior-center","tag-social-activities","tag-support","tag-volunteers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271516","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=271516"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/271516\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/271517"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=271516"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=271516"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=271516"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}