COA hosts Valentine’s luncheon

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By Laura Drinan
Hometown Weekly Reporter

Love was in the air last week at the Caryl Community Center, where the Dover Council on Aging (COA) was hosting its annual Valentine’s Day party on February 13.

Four long tables dressed in purple tablecloths and set with red plates and heart-printed napkins sat the dozens of seniors who joined for the celebration. Scattered on the table were boxes of candy hearts – a Valentine’s Day staple.

“It’s a nice event for people to get out and connect and to just enjoy each other,” said Janet Claypoole, COA director, who festively accented her outfit with a frilly red scarf. “And now nobody has to spend [the day] alone.”

Table by table, the seniors helped themselves to a buffet of salad, chicken parmesan and meatballs, and fruit. Of course, the seniors had to reserve some space for strawberry cake, mini cupcakes, and cookies for dessert.

While they ate, the seniors chatted and visited their friends at neighboring tables. Once they finished serving those in attendance, the volunteers packed up the leftovers for the seniors to take home.

After they finished dessert, a group of seniors abandoned their table and moved to the two rows of chairs that were set up in the back of the room, preparing to play their ukuleles.

“I’m so pleased we have such a wonderful turnout because we have our ukulele group, the Happy Strummers, coming to play for us,” Janet said, before delivering some announcements about upcoming events and thanking all of the volunteers.

The Happy Strummers are members of the COA’s lifetime learning ukulele class, which meets weekly. They frequent surrounding senior centers and care facilities to perform, and happily played love songs for their fellow seniors at the luncheon.

The ukulele players, who joked that the performance was a mandatory sing-along, distributed lyric booklets for the audience to sing along to. Together, the players and the audience sang songs like “You Are My Sunshine,” “Oh, My Darling Clementine,” and “Polly Wolly Doodle.”

It didn’t matter to the seniors that they celebrated Valentine’s Day a day early, as it was nevertheless a day spent with loved ones.