Copperas Cove Senior Center hosts Thanks-for-Giving feast

By BRITTANY FHOLER
Cove Leader-Press

The Copperas Cove Senior Activity Center held its annual Thanks-for-Giving Feast Tuesday morning to show thanks to sponsors and supporters. 
The Senior Center provided the turkey and ham, while the senior citizens brought side dishes to the pot-luck style feast. 
Representatives of various sponsors and supporters of the Senior Center and its senior citizens chowed down with the seniors, enjoying a full spread of turkey, ham, mashed potatoes, stuffing, green beans, green bean casserole, brussels sprouts, a bowl of chili, cranberry jelly, dinner rolls, a fruit salad with Jello and marshmallows, cupcakes and two kinds of pie. 
Community Outreach Specialist Jeri Wood said that this feast started around four years ago as a way to just show appreciation to the sponsors. 
“We get help all year long,” Wood said. 
Susie Meelbusch-Woods, Director of Public Relations for Hillside Medical Lodge in Gatesville, will come down and throw birthday parties once a month, for example, and A&L Florist will send floral bouquets for the birthday parties, while Trae Cunningham of Elara Caring Home Health and Hospice will do bingo for the senior citizens, Wood said. 
“You know, our sponsors really are the backbone of my center. I wouldn’t be able to do what I do without them,” Wood said. “I really couldn’t do it without them. As much as I need my volunteers, I need my sponsors just as much. They leave my budget free to do things, bigger and better things, for the seniors.”
During the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Senior Center was closed to the public and underwent a makeover, with new furniture and a fresh coat of paint. 
“We’re trying to make it something that the seniors really want to be here, you know, not just something small, which is the city council and [Parks and Recreation Director] Jeff [Stoddard] are working on building a new center,” Wood explained. “It’s still in the works and still have a long way to go, but he’s not giving up on it and there are members of City Council that I think they don’t want to give up on any of that because the seniors deserve it.”
Wood said that with the sponsors and their representatives, a relationship is formed between the senior citizens and those sponsors. Trust is built, and the senior citizens know the sponsors. 
“It’s all about giving the seniors a good program, and I couldn’t do it without them,” Wood said about the sponsors. “The city gives me a decent budget every year, but it only goes so far, especially in an older building, when we have COVID, when we have storms, when we have everything.” 
Wood said that the Thanks-for-Giving feast offers a way for the senior citizens to contribute as well. 
“They love to cook,” Wood said. “They love to make people smile. Senior citizens are just like the rest of us- it’s just that they’ve got a different set of values than the younger generations do. If the younger generations can look past that and just talk to people like they’re humans, they’ve got so much they can learn from the seniors.”
The purpose of the Senior Center is to keep the senior citizens active and engaged and not just stuck at home, looking at the same four walls, Wood said. 
“Sitting at home looking at the same floor walls is almost a death sentence to senior citizens,” Wood added. 
The Senior Center offers lunch twice a week, breakfast once a month and a monthly potluck. There are fitness/exercise classes three times a week. Recreational activities include Bingo games on Tuesdays and Fridays, a crochet/knitting group meeting once a week and other card or dominoes games Monday through Friday. 
With the Thanks-for-Giving Feast, the senior citizens also have a chance to fellowship with each other. 
“With a lot of them being alone at this time of year because of being widowed or, you know, family moving in different spaces and that kind of thing, it gives them a chance to be social at a holiday with their friends,” Wood said. “It’s all about them having fun, and this gives them a chance to be around with friends and have fun too for the holidays.”
Richard Rodriguez and Alicia Brondo are from New Century Hospice. The two sat down for their lunch with several of the senior citizens.
Rodriguez said that their role is to educate communities, doctors and healthcare professionals on what hospice is and isn’t. 
“Just to be able to give back to the community and let them know that it’s about networking and being able to be there to help them and support them when they need help and support, whether that’s hospice help or whether that’s helping them find other avenues of support healthcare-wise,  that’s what we’re here to do,” Rodriguez said. 
Rodriguez said he had been to the Thanks-for-Giving feast at the Senior Center before, but this was Brondo’s first time. 
Other sponsors of the Senior Center include Hill Country Nursing and Rehab, Jovita Castro, Carlo Grier, Christie Duff, VFW Post #8577 and Auxiliary, James Powell, Deborah Davis, Standards Home Health and Hospice, the Trepls, Glenda Smolen, Beacon Hospice and Chris Mandanici. 
For more information on the Senior Center, people can contact Jeri Wood via email at  jwood@copperascovetx.gov or by calling 254-547-6049. The Senior Center is located at 1012 North Dr, Suite 5 in Copperas Cove.