EP# 48: Empowering Elders: Inside the Ware Senior Center's Vibrant Community and Mission with John Zienowicz
Apr 11, 2024Episode 48
Liz Lemon & John Zienowicz
What makes John Zienowicz with Ware Senior Center a good neighbor?
As I walked through the tranquil woods, the crunching leaves underfoot and my daughter's dog leading the way, a wave of reflection overtook me, reminding me of my father's own journey through retirement and illness. It's these poignant moments that underscore the importance of community and support at every stage of life—themes that my guest John Zienowicz from the Ware Senior Center and I explore in our latest conversation. John unveils the center's mission to empower our elder community, offering an extensive range of services from healthcare access to transportation, ensuring that the absence of the local Mary Lane Hospital doesn't leave our seniors adrift.
The heart of our community beats strong within the walls of the Ware Senior Center, where the rhythm of line dancing mingles with the focus of tai chi classes—a far cry from the misconception that these hubs are just for the 'old people.' On the Good Neighbor Podcast, John and I shine a light on the hive of activity and the sense of camaraderie that breathes life into the center. And it's not just about activities; we celebrate the critical role of an exceptional social worker who bridges the gap between needs and resources, offering a lifeline to services like health insurance counseling and SNAP benefits. Tune in for a heartening glimpse into how the Ware Senior Center is redefining the golden years for the seniors and the wider community it so dedicatedly serves.
What makes John Zienowicz with Ware Senior Center a good neighbor?
As I walked through the tranquil woods, the crunching leaves underfoot and my daughter's dog leading the way, a wave of reflection overtook me, reminding me of my father's own journey through retirement and illness. It's these poignant moments that underscore the importance of community and support at every stage of life—themes that my guest John Zienowicz from the Ware Senior Center and I explore in our latest conversation. John unveils the center's mission to empower our elder community, offering an extensive range of services from healthcare access to transportation, ensuring that the absence of the local Mary Lane Hospital doesn't leave our seniors adrift.
The heart of our community beats strong within the walls of the Ware Senior Center, where the rhythm of line dancing mingles with the focus of tai chi classes—a far cry from the misconception that these hubs are just for the 'old people.' On the Good Neighbor Podcast, John and I shine a light on the hive of activity and the sense of camaraderie that breathes life into the center. And it's not just about activities; we celebrate the critical role of an exceptional social worker who bridges the gap between needs and resources, offering a lifeline to services like health insurance counseling and SNAP benefits. Tune in for a heartening glimpse into how the Ware Senior Center is redefining the golden years for the seniors and the wider community it so dedicatedly serves.
This is the Good Neighbor Podcast. This is the Good Neighbor Podcast, the place where local businesses and neighbors come together. Here's your host, Liz Lemon.
Speaker 2:
Welcome to Good Neighbor Podcast. Are you in need of a senior center near your town? Surprisingly, it might be closer than you think. Today I have the pleasure of introducing your neighbor, John Zenowitzowitz, with the Ware Senior Center. How are you doing today, John?
Speaker 3:
Well, I'm doing just fine. Thank you, Liz. How are you today?
Speaker 2:
Great, we're excited to learn all about you and your business. Tell us about the Ware Senior Center.
Speaker 3:
Well, great, actually, you kind of helped them with the lead in. There is that, yes, there are many councils on aging, or senior centers as they call it. The councils on aging are actually the state version of that, where people are appointed to a council on aging to provide services to seniors in their towns or regions. So we are actually one of 350 or so across the Commonwealth that provide services to seniors and that started officially back in the I believe, the 70s. So it's been something that's been in your town already for quite a while and is greatly underutilized in most towns because people aren't aware of what it is. We do so. But the fun part about Councils on Aging is the old saying is if you've seen one senior center, you've seen one, because each one is totally different from any other. It's different in size, shape, programming, mission, so it really is tailored on the grassroots level to the town that it's in or the people that they provide services to.
Speaker 3:
Our mission here in Ware is to identify the total needs of the community's elder population, to link services to those needs and to improve the quality of life for our seniors. So here in Ware we have kind of an interesting situation where the population of where town is a little bit over 10,000, but our total population of people that are considered senior citizens, which is 60 or plus, is a little over 2,800. So it's 2,831 for our last census taking, um, for our last census taking. So if you do the math on that, that's 28 percent of the town is 60 and above. Uh, and for us, uh, that's a large number, plus knowing that by 2040 it's going to be 3800 plus. So we're going to have 38 percent of the town's population be over 60 years old by the time we get to 2040. So therefore, the Senior Center and the Councils on Aging play a very large role in the health and well-being of our population.
Speaker 3:
So our most focused, our recent focuses, have been mostly on access to health care, transportation and identifying local resources that are outside of our walls that can provide services to our seniors. So I don't know how familiar you are with the local health care crisis here in town with the closing of Mary Lane Hospital, but that has left a big void here in town for our seniors to be able to get access to preventative care, to doctors, to laboratories, et cetera, because all of that has been moved 13 miles south to Wing Hospital in Palmer. So for our seniors again, we have 2,800 plus seniors. Only 27% of those have a license, let alone a car. So it's very difficult for our seniors to get to, let alone a car. So it's very difficult for our seniors to get to preventative care or medical services as they need to.
Speaker 3:
So we knew that this was coming for years in advance, so we started to plan ahead and attract people that can provide services here in-house inside the senior center to be able to do that. So, for instance, we have our our Quabbin regional health nurse. A public health nurse comes here twice a month to do blood pressure screenings, glucose screenings, talk about medical issues or any test results, issues that they need translated for them, because sometimes that gets very confusing when you look at what a doctor gives you a report and you have no idea what it says is. It's all in doctor speak, so she can interpret that for you. So we have her twice, twice a month. We have a foot care nurse, alison Williams, who comes in three times a month to provide foot care for people, which is extremely important, especially for people with diabetes, to make sure that their toenails and their feet are being maintained correctly, because if you get ulcers or open sores or anything like that, it can lead to a really tragic situation, especially with diabetics.
Speaker 3:
We have Amanda Day now who is doing the mobile dental hygiene services of Western Mass. So she's coming here once a month to provide dental hygiene to people that are on MassHealth or private pay or if you're a veteran it could even be free. So she's trying to fill the gap in our area, because we have several dental offices here in town but none of them take mass health. So there's a huge hole here for seniors and people that are on mass health or don't have larger insurance plans that can pay for dental care. So we have Minda coming in.
Speaker 3:
We also have Deb Avery from Heritage Healthcare of New England comes in once a month or once every other month, depending on demand, to do hearing clinics and to do hearing aid repair or replace batteries or check to make sure they're working correctly, aid repair or replace batteries or check to make sure they're working correctly, etc. So we tried to bring in all these services, do them here in in-house so that the seniors don't have to travel so far to do as much preventative care as possible here and, of course, all of those people are able to diagnose something or look at somebody and say you know what you need a higher level than what I can provide and refer them out. So, but at least they're getting seen and they're not waiting until it becomes an emergency situation.
Speaker 2:
Right, a lot of different factors, that's for sure. A lot of different factors.
Speaker 3:
How did you get into the?
Speaker 2:
business.
Speaker 3:
How did I get into the business? It's a very long story. I don't want to take up all of our time on my history, but I was actually. Before coming here I was working. I was a director at the Tri-Community YMCA in Southbridge for 10 years Southbridge how familiar you are with the geography I don't know.
Speaker 3:
But we found out in Southbridge that Ware was actually part of our service area, which made zero sense at all. And we found that out over a border dispute with the town of Putnam when they were building a brand new facility in Putnam. When we asked why Central, what is our service area, turns out Ware came up on our service area. So the executive director at the time said somebody needs to get out to Ware and start establishing relations with people in Ware. Since I live in Wales, I drew the short straw, so to speak, and they made me come out to Ware to start attending meetings of different organizations and civic groups et cetera. And so I did that for about two years and got to meet a lot of the people here, the town manager and a lot of other business people and community organizers. We helped establish the mobile food pantry out here with Western Mass Food Bank.
Speaker 3:
So it was a lot of good things that were happening out here and when the current, the person who was in this position before me, decided to retire, it was actually Ware that reached out to me and said why don't you slide into this position? Because you're doing fairly well in this town and people seem to like what you're doing. So it was just sort of a move across from working at the Y as a director to moving over to the senior center as a director and then just taking it from being at the Y. Of course you know you're going all the way from infants to 100 year olds. So here it's just focusing on that other end of the spectrum, so it's mostly just seniors now.
Speaker 2:
Right Multifacet for sure. Outside of work, what do you do for fun?
Speaker 3:
What do I do for fun? You know this is going to sound really funny, but I like to do nothing. I have the same thing with the Y. It's such a high energy, very public position You're running around the building and talking to people all day and answering calls, answering emails, face-to-face with people constantly interacting that when I get home, I just try to shut it all off. So I like the quiet.
Speaker 3:
I live in a very worded area. My property actually abuts the Norcross Wildlife Refuge, so when I get home, my first order of business is to grab my daughter's dog, I borrow him and we go for a walk in the woods, and it's just a detox time slow everything down, get back to grounded, and most of my life is spent just putting around the yard or putting around the house and try to keep it low key, but my wife and I do enjoy traveling occasionally, and we enjoy our four grandchildren and doing whatever they're doing. So my first order of business every day, though, is to just sort of take it down a notch and quiet it all down, so I try to do that as often as possible.
Speaker 2:
Right, it all starts with grounding. Let's change gears just for a moment. Can you describe one hardship or life challenges that you rose above and can now say, because of it you're better and stronger? What comes to mind?
Speaker 3:
Wow, um, I guess my biggest thing was this is going to sound really morbid, but watching my father die. He was a Korean War Marine, a very strong, very active person, owned his own business for 40 years, 40 plus years Was very much into traveling and he was the kind of guy that could never sit still. And as soon as he retired, after working and working and working and putting my sister and I through good schools and good colleges, he finally retired, only to, maybe less than a year later, be diagnosed with a terminal illness. So everything that he had worked for his entire life, when he finally got a chance to enjoy it he didn't get to. So it was a long, slow process watching that happen, and he kind of just tried to remind us not to wait.
Speaker 3:
Do what you want to do, have fun. If you don't enjoy what you're doing, find something else. Because he spent his whole life kind of similarly focused, singularly focused on getting to the end point, to then enjoy, but he never got to the end point. Enjoy, um, but he never got to the end point. So, uh, he's, he's kind of like don't worry about those things so much, just enjoy your life and and, uh, do whatever you can to to not miss those opportunities. So I guess that would be the. The big thing is just a big part of my slowing everything down. He always had a little um. He always had a little wooden sign on his desk. I remember it said don't be so busy making a living that you forget to make a life. So that stuck with me.
Speaker 2:
That's very wise words, that's for sure. What is the one thing that you would like our listeners to know about the Ware Senior Center?
Speaker 3:
Oh, this one's easy, I'm sorry, take your time, take your time.
Speaker 3:
Yeah, this one is easy. The single biggest misconception about the Ware Senior Center is that it's for old people. That's what we always get is oh, I'm not going there, it's only for old people. Now you get people that are 70, 80 years old. They'll say that out loud because they don't feel old, and that's fine. That's wonderful and that's a big part of our society now is people are living longer, more active, healthier lives, and that's great. But that's not what the Senior Center is about.
Speaker 3:
We're not just sitting around in wheelchairs staring at at the wall waiting for the next bingo number to be called out. We have a very active population here. They do a wide variety of things like tai chi and line dancing, and we have a walking club, we do chair yoga, we have scrapbooking, we have a pool table, we do quilting, crocheting, we have a coffee bar. In the morning we have parties, our infamous parties, either birthday parties or whatever the holiday is. Actually, we just had 80 people here today for our birthday party, with entertainment and everything else. So there's always something going on here and it's not sitting around staring at the walls and wheelchairs. The walls and wheelchairs.
Speaker 3:
So and one other big thing is doesn't get enough attention to is we have here on site one of the most gifted social workers in the area in Janine Lease, and she provides a very vital service here to the town and the seniors and actually beyond the town, because there are some things that she can do that are regional, not just for the seniors, and actually beyond the town, because there are some things that she can do that are regional, not just for the seniors of where and that she is a regional provider for SNAP benefits. So anybody that is 18 and over and will qualify for SNAP benefits or food stamps as they used to be called can make an appointment with Janine. She has direct access to the government's portal, can sign them up right there, there on the spot, and they can have their benefits very quickly. She also is SHINE certified, which is serving the health insurance needs of everyone, so she can talk about. She can get people enrolled immediately into MassHealth, medicaid, medicare. During the open enrollment period she can go over, review your plan with you and decide if there's something better for you and get you enrolled in that.
Speaker 3:
So that's a very important thing to do. She can consult and enroll with CHAMP, housing applications, with fuel assistance applications, recertifications, social security enrollment. She's a regional provider of the Salvation Army Good Neighbor Fund for emergencies, also with a couple of the local community funds that provide emergency help in case of you know, your furnace broke or you ran out of oil or your air conditioner doesn't work or something like that. She could find some funds for you. So there's a lot of things that are happening.
Speaker 3:
Also, being able to go to people's houses. For people that are homebound and can't get out, she can go to their house, sign them up there. We're working in conjunction with the public health nurse so that the two of them can go out. The public health nurse can do a physical assessment, janine can do a social services assessment and they can bring a whole bunch of services into your house to help you through Western Mass Elder Care or the Greater Springfield Senior Services Incorporated. So there's a lot of things that could happen there that people aren't aware of and don't take advantage of it now. Just having a social worker here in-house is wonderful.
Speaker 2:
That's great. How can our listeners learn more about the Ware Senior Center?
Speaker 3:
Very simply, we are located here at 1 Robbins Road, r-o-b-b-i-n-s Road in Ware, which is right behind Dr Hakeem and Safi's office, and a direct next door neighbor is the Ware Fire Department. So it's right if you know where those buildings are. We're right there, next to them, but we're also at 413-967-9645. That number again, 413-967-9645. And we also have our own page on the townofwarecom website where pretty much everything is available on there Our monthly newsletter, our menus. We have lunch here five times a week, served at 1130. So the menu is there. The newsletter has all of the activities plus all of the services that are available are in there as well. So there's a lot of different ways that you can get in touch or figure out what we're doing.
Speaker 2:
That's great. You read my mind on the phone number and, John, we wish you and your business the best moving forward and thank you so much for being on our show today.
Speaker 3:
Well, thank you Anytime.
Speaker 1:
Take care. Thank you for listening to the Good Neighbor Podcast. To nominate your favorite local businesses to be featured on the show, go to gnppalmercom. That's gnppalmercom, or call 413-414-5940. Thank you.