La Vida Local
Irregular Notes on West End Life
What Neighborhood Can Offer
By Rosanne Graef
The City of Portland’s website lists over twenty neighborhood associations. In addition to these organizations, Portland also has numerous friends groups supporting individual parks, cemeteries, bodies of water, even a musical instrument (the Kotzschmar organ) has friends.
Why do people form these sorts of groups?
Sometimes it’s a response to a threat. At others it’s a desire to improve or to solve a particular problem. For whatever reason, some groups thrive for decades, most go through periods of advance and retreat, others achieve their purpose and disband, while more than a few peter out before they really get going.
The West End is fortunate to have several active neighborhood associations—Parkside, West End, Western Prom and St. John/Valley. If you’re familiar at all with Portland’s West End, you know that while these neighborhoods occupy a small portion of the City of Portland, they contain a lot of people and have distinct qualities and feels. One thing they have in common, though, is Reiche School and Community Center. Most elementary students in the area go to Reiche School and residents use the Community Center resources such as the pool and gym.
In the past two issues, I’ve written about the Maine Council on Aging’s Age+ Positive initiative. With the help of a Caring Community grant from Maine Medical Center, the West End Neighborhood Association is attempting to make the Reiche Community Room into a place where older adults can come to learn, teach, create, and have fun.
Please check out our calendar of FREE activities in this and every issue of The West End News.
If you like to play cards, there’s an opportunity to learn/teach/play bridge or cribbage every Thursday from 4 to 5:30 p.m. Enjoy animated movies? Come join us on the fourth Monday at 7 p.m. for a film and brief discussion. Exercise every morning from 8:15 to 9:15 a.m.
Talk about death, sing, dance, paint, draw, and most important play BEANO (a.k.a. Bingo)! Check the calendar or the WENA website (www.wenamaine.org) for more details and offerings.
Why bother with these sorts of activities when you can go out to a play or concert, stay home and watch sports, read, eat, or any number of things?
For the folks who are already attending, the answers are obvious:
“I feel so much better when I do these exercises.”
“I’ve wanted to learn to play bridge for years.”
“It’s fun to make things together.“
“I feel that I’m a part of something.”
“I know there are people I could ask to help me out if I need it.”
One of the participants recently said that the three most recommended actions a person can take to prevent cognitive decline are physical activity, socializing, and engaging in intellectually stimulating activity. If this sounds like a goal for you in the new year, please join us! We have people who come from as far away as North and East Deering. Don’t be shy, just show up.
