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Living Life After 50
Elko Edition REaching ElkhaRt, kosciusko, noblE and lagRangE countiEs
September 2024
BUTTON ART — Sue Burns, Owls Club member, works on her button art project, one of the many projects she has made during her time attending Owls Club. Photo provided by Owls Club.
Vol. 37, No. 7
www.seniorlifenewspapers.com
GROUP EXCURSION — Owls Club tries to bridge the gap between seniors and traveling by offering group excursions. Recently, some Owl Club members ventured to Fort Wayne to indulge in sightseeing, famous coney dogs and other delicious treats. Photo provided.
COOKIE DECORATING — Marcia Namenye concentrates on decorating one of her cookies. Cookie decorating is one of the many creative classes seniors can challenge themselves with. Photo provided.
Owls Club helps fights senior
LONELINESS EPIDEMIC
By MARISSA SWEATLAND Staff Writer
“Our mission is very simple, it is to combat the loneliness epidemic we are seeing in the United States. We want to support our seniors and get them out of the house,” Maggie Okponobi, executive director of Owls Club, explained. “We want them to come and be social, no matter what that looks like for them. It could be as simple as coming and having a cup of coffee. We want to increase the health of seniors in our community.” Located within the Trinity United Methodist Church, 2715 E. Jackson Blvd., Elkhart, Owls Club strives
to improve the health and well-being of seniors 55 and better through purposeful opportunities for “service, lifelong learning, active play and social connection.” Activities vary from day to day and month to month. September boasts a month of fun, engaging activities such as: chair cardio, lifelong learner’s league, poetry, line dancing, lunch bunch and various classes and support groups that touch on topics like the
Constitution, the Bible and caregiver support. “We find it really important, we being myself and our board members, income and money is not a barrier to our members,” Okponobi mentioned. “Our membership is free. Ninety-five percent of our classes are free to our members. If we do have to put a fee on a class, which is most likely to help offset class supply cost, we do our best to keep it under $10 per class.”
Monday through Friday, the Owls Club activity calendar is packed full of fun things for its members to try. Classes do require registration and can be done by popping into Owls Club or by calling (574) 3362652 after signing up for the free membership. “It is so important for humans to have social interaction, and beyond that, how are we using our brains?” Okponobi posed. “Friendships are built here. We have a group of
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members come to our Friday game time and will come, have a great time and then leave to go grab some dinner together. What’s built here reaches beyond the walls of the club.” Owls Club opened its doors about a year ago, in early 2023, through private funding by two founders. Because of these funds, the Owls Club was able to hit the ground running and offer a plethora of activities, classes and groups from day one. “We are very fortunate to have some of the funds still, as we head into our second year,” Okponobi explained. “We have just applied for our first grant. We received a match-
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