Day 13

In the midst of setting up for lunch, I realized that it was 9:25 and that I was 10 minutes late for my Lumosity appointment with Faye. I walked into the room with the computer to find Faye sitting there, and to my surprise, she had logged onto Lumosity all by herself! I was very happy to see this since she had so much trouble logging in on the day that we started. We finished up the games for the day and she pulled her home phone out of her bag, telling me that she was going to bring it to Verizon because it didn't ring when people called her. I took a look at it, and adjusted the ringer volume, and it was as simple as that. She was very pleased, and I was happy to be able to help. After that, the seniors gathered to hear a lecture from a local Councilwoman, but this woman never showed up. Therefore, as an improvisation, Lynn asked Alexis and I to do a "Tech Talk" with the seniors. I stood in front of the seniors, asking who had cell phones, and describing the difference between an iPad, iPod, and iPhone. I hope that I cleared some things up. After lunch today, Alexis and I were able to indulge in some chocolate cake that one of the seniors had brought for his birthday, and that was delicious.

Day 12

Today started off with Alexis and I showing Lynn the pictures we had from prom. It was also supposed to be the first day of construction on the men's bathroom, but the workers didn't show up. Alexis and I kept busy by cleaning out another cabinet in the supply closet and getting rid of many things that were not being used.  I also had a Lumosity session with Faye, and we made an "appointment" to do Lumosity again tomorrow at 9:15. Today's lunch was easy to clean up, so we were able to leave a little early.

Day 11

Today is the day of prom, and it seemed as if the seniors were just as excited as Alexis and I! Lynn asked me if I could assist one of the seniors who needed help figuring something out on her iPad. This woman, Faye, had suffered a stroke and lost some of her memory capabilities and struggled with her speech. She was trying to log in to a website called Lumosity, which consists of "brain-training" games that are supposed to help with memory, concentration, etc. I had actually heard about this site from Mr. Devereaux, who recommended for people our age as well. So after a little bit of difficulty, Faye and I got onto the computer and I guided her through the set of games for the day that are provided with the free membership. We agreed to meet again on Monday to play more games. I was very excited to be able to help Faye, and I hope that the daily training that Lumosity gives her is really able to make a difference for her. When it came time, Alexis and I served lunch, which was an egg salad sandwich with sides of cucumbers,  four-bean salad, and whole wheat bread. Once lunch was served and clean-up was done, Alexis and I were able to leave about 10 minutes early in preparation for our prom!

Day 10

This morning, Alexis and I made copies of the Senior Center's lunch calendar for the month of June. However, there was a misplaced part in the copy machine that caused the calendar to print incorrectly. This meant that the majority of the 50 calendars that we printed were missing vital information, namely the Senior Center's hours. Alexis and I compensated for this mistake by writing the hours out on each calendar by hand. Once we were done folding the calendars, we made signs for the bathrooms, which will go under construction tomorrow. Today's lunch, vegetable lasagna, was easy to serve but a mess to clean up. However, once we finished, we were able to head home.

Day 9

Today, Alexis and I were granted the responsibility of calling Bingo since Walter, who usually calls Bingo, was not coming to the center. There is a set group of seniors who play Bingo every Monday- Friday from 10 - 11:15 AM. These seniors take Bingo very seriously, so Alexis and I felt a significant amount of pressure when we were assigned the task of calling the games. Within the hour and 15 minutes allotted for Bingo, 10 different games are played. Therefore, we split that in half-- Alexis called the first 5 games and I called the last 5. We were able to catch on quickly and afterwards, the seniors expressed their gratitude towards us, also commending us on our calling abilities. After Bingo, it was time to serve lunch. Today's meal, chicken cutlet, was an easy one. After serving, we cleaned up quickly and were able to go home.

Day 8

This morning was a slow one at the senior center, consisting mainly of cleaning out the supply closet. Before that, however, we helped Lynn set up for lunch when the food truck arrived, which didn't take long at all. The supply closet was a big mess, with file cabinets containing everything from paperwork to a CD player. One of the drawers contained over 50 decks of cards which were scattered all over. We proceeded to organize them neatly along with all of the miscellaneous items in the other drawers and we labeled each drawer according to its contents. We had finished two file cabinets worth of work when lunch time came. We served the lunch of the day which was an open faced steak sandwich with mashed potatoes and squash with grapes for dessert. The only hassle was cleaning up the pan that held the mashed potatoes, but after that, we were good to go and headed home for the day.

Day 7

Today was perhaps the most relaxed day so far. After spending some time in the office discussing the to-do list for the next few days as well as the plans for the Senior Citizen prom that took place tonight, Alexis and Lynn headed to the borough hall to make photocopies as Deborah and I ventured to the kitchen to receive the food delivery. I ended up dishing rice pudding into small cups, and Deborah took care of everything else. Alexis and Lynn came back, and we spent some more time in the kitchen, speaking with seniors about their senior citizen prom as well as our upcoming prom. Afterwards, we headed back to the office as Lynn and Deborah prepared to walk with the seniors for "Walk at Work Day." The seniors proceeded to walk around the building and to the track for 30 minutes as planned, and spent another 30 minutes in their usual exercise class with Lynn. During this time, Alexis and I were left in charge of answering the phone and watching over things in the office. After the exercise class, our next assignment was to fold the bulletins that Alexis and Lynn had made copies of in the morning. Just as we finished, it was time to serve today's lunch, which was Eggplant Rollatini and spaghetti. Clean-up took a while today, but we were able to leave right after, having had a relaxed day.

Day 6

Upon my arrival this morning, Lynn said that she had a favor to ask. She said that there was a shopping  cart from CVS outside of the building that had been left there last week and needed to be returned. Alexis and I tried to see if it would fit in my trunk, but to no avail. We ended up walking it over to CVS with no problem. When we got back to the senior center, Lynn told us that she had received a new computer monitor that she wanted us to help set up for her. With a few complications, we were able to set it up, saving her a lot of desk space, since the previous monitor looked as if it was from the 90's. We also cleaned out the supply closet, finding room for the books on the shelves that we had previously re-arranged. We then went to prepare lunch, which consisted entirely of cold food, so clean up was easy, too. Once we were done, we took stacks of magazines out to the curb to be picked up for disposal, and our day was done.

Day 5

Today was the most eventful day thus far at the Senior Center. The first thing we had to do was list ingredients of more chemicals-- Lynn had realized that we hadn't gone through the cleaning supplies that were in the kitchen. We finished this job quickly, unaware of our busy day to come. The lunch of the day was hamburgers with a side of potato salad and macaroni salad. That sounds easy enough, but we ended up receiving double the amount of food. This was a result of the fact that the Teaneck Senior Center was closed temporarily due to a gas leak. We tried solving this problem by offering double cheeseburgers to the seniors, which most of them took full advantage of. The leftover potato and macaroni salads were also put into containers, which the seniors also took full advantage of. Just when we thought that we had dealt with enough food for the day, there was a delivery of all kinds of pastries and breads that were leftovers from a local bakery. Everything looked so good, and Alexis and I were told that we could take some of the treats home, which was definitely a plus. However, we also had to divide the bread into separate paper bags for the seniors to take home. The pastries would be set out during the movie that they would be watching later in the day. We found some time to join in on Lynn's exercise class again as well, and although it was a busy day, the time sure did seem to fly.

Day 4

Since we had finished finding the ingredients of all of the cleaning chemicals yesterday, all we had to do today was write the product names and list the ingredients on labels. We placed the labels inside the cabinet where the chemicals were stored, and Lynn was very impressed with how organized it looked. We then headed over to the kitchen to bag bread for everyone's lunch. Exercise class began, so we decided that we would join again. After that, we went back to the kitchen and served lunch, which was BBQ chicken. This was a messy dish to clean up after, but once we were done we headed home for the day.

Day 3

Today, we continued to find the ingredients of all of the cleaning supplies in the closet, using one of the computers to do our research. We finally finished our long list and were ready to start preparing lunch. The lunch of the day was turkey with a side of sweet potato. Perhaps the most interesting part of the day was when one of the seniors carried out a conversation with me for what must have been an excess of 10 minutes about college and life in general. Since we were getting the hang of things, we had cleaned up with time to spare, and were able to go home about 15 minutes early.

Day 2

This morning, I arrived at the Senior Center at 8:30, just like yesterday. Lynn began to tell us that the state required that the ingredients of all of the cleaning chemicals they used be listed. She asked us if we could handle this task, and we agreed as she searched through her office for an extra notebook or paper. She ended up giving me money to buy one from CVS, and when I got back, Alexis and I started on our task. In the midst of this task, Deborah, who works at the senior center, asked if either one of us could figure out how to hook up a printer to the computer in the office. She said that the printer had been lying around for a while but they never got to hook it up. I left Alexis to continue listing ingredients, and I successfully hooked up the printer. Frank, who delivers the food for lunch, arrived right when I finished so Lynn, Alexis, Deborah, and I headed over to the kitchen to prepare the food. Today's food was ravioli, so Alexis and I were responsible for bagging slices of bread along with crackers and packets of salad dressing. Once that was done, we headed back into the main room as Lynn began her exercise class, which she asked us to join. The class, consisting entirely of women, was very happy to have us join them, and greeted us with a round of applause. One of the women told me to "Try to keep up", which got a big laugh from everyone including myself. The class was a mix of cardio and weights set to calming music, and I enjoyed participating. After the exercise class was over, we headed back to the kitchen. We proceeded to serve the ravioli with soup, meatballs, and a salad. We washed all of the dishes, and after that, we were done for the day.

Day 1

This morning, I arrived at the New Milford Senior Center a few minutes before 8:30, which was the time that I said I would arrive. Alexis arrived at just about the same time, and we walked in together. After speaking with Lynn shortly in her office, we headed over to the kitchen. She began by explaining the proper food safety measures that we had to take, and then handed gloves and a hairnet to each of us.  Our first task was to prepare a few of the side dishes for lunch, which included Mandarin oranges and Chow mein noodles, both of which we placed in small cups for distribution. Meanwhile, Lynn was struggling to figure out why her food thermometers were reading -200 degrees Fahrenheit for some of the hot dishes, but she eventually got one of them to display the correct readings. Then, as the seniors played their daily game of Bingo, Lynn showed us the book shelves, and told us that she'd love if we would organize them, so we put all of the books in alphabetical order by the last names of the authors. We also cleaned up the bulletin board by getting rid of any outdated flyers and hanging up a new one. Before we knew it, lunchtime came around. I was assigned the task of ladling the soup into styrofoam cups. Then, we formed an assembly line and put the entree, vegetables, and rice on trays for distribution. Following lunch, we took out the birthday cake from the fridge for one of the seniors, Rosemarie. We put candles on it and sang happy birthday, and Rosemarie was ecstatic, especially when told that her son had delivered the cake for her this morning! After a kiss from her husband, she blew out the candles and the cake was distributed for everyone to enjoy. The last thing we had to do was wash all of the dishes in three sinks: the first was for soaping, the next was for rinsing, and the third was for rinsing in bleach. After we dried all of the dishes, Lynn told us that we could go home. We made our way through the main room, where a Tai-chi class was in session, and headed home for the day. Time went very quickly while we were there, and I enjoyed helping out. Can't wait to see what we'll be doing tomorrow!