On a sunny morning at Heineberg Community Senior Center in Burlington, volunteers laid out coffee and tea in a roped-off area near the parking lot. One by one, a dozen people grabbed a mug and crowded around two tables shaded under an umbrella.
Months ago, gathering so many older Vermonters so close together would have seemed impossible. But on this day, there was no social distancing, no masks, just conversation and laughter.
Was it strange to adjust to being so close? Irene Bowman answered with a resounding “no.”
“I told my daughter, ‘I’m just so sick of being stuck in the house all the time,’” said Bowman, a Winooski resident visiting with friends Thursday. She’s planning a fall foliage bus tour in September.
With 90% of Vermonters 65 and over having started the vaccination process, seniors are returning to their pre-pandemic lives. Heineberg, an independent nonprofit, was one of the first senior centers to reopen in April.
The members had a lot to catch up on. Seniors were even more isolated than the average Vermonter during the pandemic. Larry Oliver described it as a “nightmare from hell.” Asked about their experience, several members responded “Sad!” in unison.
Now, seniors are eagerly returning to the events they missed, including yoga held upstairs on Thursday at the Heineberg center.
MaryAnn Valla returned to the center to play bridge about six weeks ago. She missed the camaraderie, she said, “and the people are excellent players.”
Donna Zeo, a dance teacher at the center for 23 years, said the center was offering “different classes, different times, different ages, different everything” to bring in as many people as possible.
She’s also an avid visitor to the center’s cooking demonstrations, which teaches people to cook “special things because we need to.”
“We don’t know what quinoa is,” she said.
Among the many programs offered at Heineberg: bingo, Bone Builders, Tai Chi, knitting, painting, mahjong, a book club and a monthly pizza party for people’s birthdays.
And there’s also just coffee and conversation, held on Thursdays, for people to catch up. Sharon Lowes, a center volunteer, said the easing of pandemic restrictions has lifted people’s spirits.
“It’s really great to be with people,” she said, “now that we can be with people again.”
Social isolation
In November 2019, VTDigger visited Heineberg as part of a report about social isolation. At the time, advocates said it was an issue that deserved more attention, particularly among seniors and people with disabilities.
No one knew that social isolation was about to become a national conversation. Beth Hammond, executive director of the center, said the pandemic showed the Heineberg staff the gaps they had in their services.
“The silver lining is at the end of the day, we have ended up far better and far more equipped to respond to isolation,” she said.
The center developed new online programming, got a new bus for handicapped transportation and started a meals program, she said. To meet increased demand for its long-running on-site groceries distribution, it added City Market and Everyone Eats along with Hannaford Supermarkets as providers.
Still, the center ran into trouble keeping seniors occupied and in touch with others. Although some adapted to online events, others found it difficult to join in or found the cost of internet connection prohibitive, she said.
“When every penny counts, internet isn’t something you splurge on,” Hammond said. “And unfortunately during the pandemic, it was almost a necessity, but it was one that they really couldn’t afford.”
The center helped members apply for low-cost connections and offered help with telehealth appointments. When vaccination appointments opened up, she said, the center’s staff assisted about 100 people in signing up via phone.
“There’s a lot of buildup of, ‘Oh, am I gonna get my appointment?’ It seemed like a very stressful situation,” she said. “And we even had some happy tears when we got through [and] we said ‘OK, you have your appointment.’ It was a huge relief to many.”
Most members were like Bowman, Hammond said: eager to rip off the mask and get back to their social lives once they were vaccinated.
“It’s given their life back,” she said.
But Hammond asked people to have mindfulness and respect for others. “Everybody’s coming out of it a little bit differently,” she said. Unvaccinated visitors are still expected to wear masks, but she has reminded members that some people may be unvaccinated for reasons besides politics.
She said it’s “heart-wrenching” to think of how things were back in March 2020, but looking back on the journey, she’s grateful the Heineberg center was able to shift so quickly to be there for people.
“People ask if we’ve learned anything,” she said. “And it really is just that we’ve always [followed] our hearts in every decision. It sounds cheesy, but there was so much fear out there. It was really important to remember the emotional risks.”
