Island Senior: Year-end wrap-up for 2022

Yes­ter­day I went to the Mullis Cen­ter for my reg­u­lar­ly sched­uled foot care appoint­ment. It’s a plea­sure if not a gen­uine neces­si­ty to have my feet well cared for. It was a Tues­day and the cen­ter was fair­ly qui­et. Still, it was good to see the Christ­mas trees and lights cre­at­ing a fes­tive atmosphere.

The Mullis Center’s reg­u­lar hours are Mon­day, Wednes­day, and Fri­day from 9 a.m.-4 p.m. or by appoint­ment — call 360–370-7520 — on Tues­day and Thursday.

Like the center’s nutri­tion pro­gram — con­sist­ing of both Meals on Wheels and com­mu­ni­ty lunch­es — the center’s foot care pro­gram has qui­et­ly grown this year, near­ly dou­bling pre-pan­dem­ic numbers.

Com­mu­ni­ty lunch­es are being served Mon­day and Wednes­day between noon and 1 p.m. Sal­ads and deserts are pre-plat­ed and folks are encour­aged to spread out arrival times and lim­it tables to five or six peo­ple so as to main­tain social dis­tanc­ing. Masks at com­mu­ni­ty lunch are option­al and COVID-19 vac­ci­na­tions and boost­ers are rec­om­mend­ed. Menus are post­ed on the Mullis Cen­ter web­site.

Anoth­er one of the Mullis Center’s pro­grams that has qui­et­ly become a val­ued part of my life is Chair Yoga with Kate­ri­na Wen. Both Chair Yoga and Bal­ance and Stretch class­es con­tin­ue to be offered via Zoom. Chair Yoga Zoom is at 9:30 a.m. on Tues­days. Bal­ance and Stretch Zoom is at 9:30 a.m. on Thurs­days. If you are like me and may not be ready for exer­cise at 9:30 in the morn­ing, you can get a link to use the class as many times as you would like to through­out the week. For more infor­ma­tion about these class­es, call 360–370-7520.

A host of oth­er activ­i­ties bring folks into the cen­ter, includ­ing after­noon socials on Mon­days and Wednes­days from 1–3 p.m. All are wel­come to join the games, puz­zles, vis­it­ing and laugh­ter. There is a paint­ing group from 9:30–11:30 a.m. on Wednes­days, a quilt­ing group on Wednes­days from 3–4:30 p.m., and a knit­ters group on Thurs­days from 7–9 p.m.

A new project in the works is the cre­ation of a care­giv­ing direc­to­ry and resource web­site called Care­giv­ing Con­nec­tions San Juan. Any fam­i­ly who has expe­ri­enced the sud­den need of care for a loved one can under­stand how help­ful this will be.

Mean­while, Senior Ser­vices Coun­cil has been busy work­ing to change the three senior cen­ters on Lopez, Orcas, and San Juan into three dis­tinct non-prof­its. These changes will allow each cen­ter to oper­ate more effi­cient­ly serv­ing seniors in each community.

The Mullis Com­mu­ni­ty Senior Cen­ter mis­sion state­ment says, “The mis­sion of the Mullis Com­mu­ni­ty Senior Cen­ter is to meet the recre­ation­al, intel­lec­tu­al, social, phys­i­cal, and men­tal needs of seniors and dis­abled adults through advo­ca­cy, pro­grams, and ser­vices so that peo­ple can live and age well on San Juan Island.” The Mullis Cen­ter Team is work­ing hard to ful­fill this mis­sion. Please con­sid­er the Mullis Cen­ter when plan­ning your year’s end char­i­ta­ble con­tri­bu­tions. Help us con­tin­ue work­ing to ful­fill this wor­thy mission.

Dona­tions can be made online or by a check made payable to the Mullis Cen­ter — PO Box 684, or hand-deliv­ered to the Center.

Mullis Cen­ter will be closed Dec. 24–26 and Jan. 2.

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