Travel, Leisure & Fun for South Valley Adults
Travel, Leisure & Fun for South Valley Adults
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It's a bright Tuesday morning inside the exercise room at Quail Park at Shannon Ranch at the west end of the building. They had already begun to gather, the six facility residents who would engage in some light stretching and calisthenics before strapping on boxing gloves in preparation for going a few rounds. But this wasn't just any northside boxing club. They were seniors, and no, not the high school variety. The youngest is 71-year-old Richard Gress, who is also the only...
The Exeter Senior Center has been reopened by Community Services Employment Training (CSET), which manages the center and seven others in Tulare County. The center, which reopened its doors on April 22, held an open house featuring coffee, tea and pastries during the morning event. Located at 301 S E Street in Exeter, the Exeter Senior Center will be open from 8:30 am to 1:30 pm on weekdays and will provide seniors with programming and nutrition services. The calendar of...
Six down, two more to go. Community Services Employment Training, which manages eight senior centers in Tulare County, has reopened the Lindsay Senior Center as of June 5. That leaves CSET just the Exeter and Goshen Senior Centers as its last two senior centers remaining to be reopened. "We are changing the number of activities at the site," said Jerel Dutton, assistant director of senior services for CSET. "We will also have other organizations available to make...
As Mental Health Awareness Month, May is a time to raise awareness of and reduce the stigma surrounding behavioral health issues, as well as highlight how mental illness can affect all of us – patients, providers, families and society at large. A local program is about to celebrate its tenth year of providing residents with a unique approach to coping with the struggles of mental illness. And while it is open to anyone ages 18 and up, most of the participants are over the a...
Grace Villarreal looked around the new Woodlake Senior Center and smiled. "I kept asking when it was going to reopen," she said. "I like the dancing for exercise, and the art." On March 27, Villarreal and a couple of dozen other Woodlake seniors came to the new Woodlake Senior Center at 145 N. Magnolia St. for a grand reopening by Community Services Employment Training (CSET), which manages the center and seven others in Tulare County. Many in attendance had been regulars at t...
After 30 months of being closed due to the pandemic, two of the eight senior centers managed by CSET will finally be reopening, marked by separate welcome-back events that reintroduce what's available at the centers. The Porterville Senior Center will reopen on Saturday, Sept. 17, with an open house that organizers say will reintroduce the meals and programming seniors were accustomed to attending. A similar event will be held Saturday, Sept. 24, at Ledbetter Park where the...
Those who came to count on the multitude of senior centers throughout Tulare and Kings counties for meals and socialization are seeing those pandemic-shuttered programs return to their previous popularity. At least mostly. There are more than a dozen senior centers in Tulare County, and most of those located in larger cities have been opened in one capacity or another for several months or longer. In Visalia, enrichment classes have begun once again at the Visalia Senior Cente...
Today's real estate market is full of first-time home buyers, those who are moving up, and those who are moving away. But the segment of the market occupied by seniors is finally starting to catch a toe-hold in the South Valley by a little known specialist designation that's emerging among real estate agents. Known as Seniors Real Estate Specialists (SRES), real estate agents who belong to the National Association of Realtors are taking coursework to obtain the NAR's...
Area residents now have the opportunity to participate in a national study of the effects of COVID-19 on cognitive function. Kaweah Health in Visalia is one of four locations nationwide participating in the two-year study that compares those who have had COVID vs those who have not. The only restrictions are participants must be at least 18 years old and have not had COVID-19 in the past three months. They must also be available to participate in the 30-minute tests over the...
In true cliffhanger fashion, a much-anticipated event is being postponed in the hope that the recent surge in the Covid pandemic will subside by the time the rescheduled date arrives. “Obviously, I would have preferred to go forward with the date, but as I watched Covid unfold I decided it was best to postpone it,” said local historian & event organizer Terry Ommen about the Inside the Visalia Ransacker Investigation lecture, originally scheduled for this Wednesday evening at the College of the Sequoias. “I didn't want this...
On April 6, Visalia may become the epicenter of the true crime craze. That's when John Vaughan, a retired Visalia police sergeant and lead investigator of the Visalia Ransacker crime spree from the mid 1970s, will speak at the College of the Sequoias during a much-anticipated event that was postponed last fall due to the latest wave of the Covid pandemic. With television shows and podcasts about true crime having amassed big interest and bigger audiences, it was no wonder...
Covid 19 has claimed another victim, but this time it's a local nonprofit organization. The Ruth Wood Open Arms House cared for its final patient this past July, then stopped accepting patients shortly thereafter. At the beginning of the pandemic, the locally owned and operated hospice was forced to close for most of 2020, before reopening its doors to patients in October that year. Then in late September 2021, a letter sent to donors, volunteers, and community supporters...
Lights, camera, action! The Tulare Public Library has launched a YouTube channel designed to cover topics of interest to seniors, among other things. "The YouTube channel is there to highlight the various virtual programs that Tulare Public Library provides," said Heidi Clark, library manager for the Tulare Public Library, adding that "Senior Spotlight" is one of several program options on the site. The programming on "Senior Spotlight" is specifically for seniors, their...
In the quest to fill time while in pandemic isolation, and more importantly find a sustainable senior hobby, we turn to the time-consuming yet injury-avoidant pursuit of genealogy. And I quickly find the inability to answer Jeopardy-like questions such as "Where did Grandma and Grandpa move here from?" So it was time to turn to the experts, the Genealogical Room inside the Tulare Public Library. It's a place renown for the resources available to the general public, which not...
While the rest of the world battled COVID-19, Town Meadows was more than lobby deep in a massive renovation project at the senior residential apartment complex in downtown Visalia. Today, with just a few tweaks remaining, the over-$7 million project catapults the multi-story building past what many would think of when it comes to low income residential housing. "I think it's very nice. The common areas are beautiful," said Betty Giles, an 89-year-old who has lived at Town...
You could sense the concern in Sabrina Jimenez' voice as she spoke. "Most people aren't familiar with hospice and all that it has to offer," she said. "Most people don't talk about end-of-life care until they need it, or they are put in a position to make a medical decision for a loved one." But the executive director of the Open Arms House in Visalia aims to change that, especially now that the six-bed home tucked away in a Central Visalia neighborhood has reopened its doors...
Looking for something new to do with your grandchild? ImagineU Children's Museum may have the answer. The nonprofit opened in 2015 at its current location northeast of downtown Visalia on Tipton Street, just north of Center. Although its focus is on exhibits and activities for children under eight years old, Executive Director Katy Young said they recently turned their attention toward a much older demographic –grandparents. "One day, I was looking out our window and t...
Shoppers at Visalia's Farmers Markets will be saying goodbye to a long-time location this year, but will double down in more ways than one when two new venues open in May. The Downtown Thursday Night Market is no more, a victim of poor air quality and stifling summer heat, according to Farmers Market Manager Angie Warkentin, who added there has been a downward trend in vendor and participant attendance at the event. "Last year, we averaged 30 vendors," she said, contrasting...
In an effort to reduce identity theft and fraud, the nation's 60 million Medicare enrollees will be receiving new cards next year, and are being warned to watch for an inevitable increase in scams that will undoubtedly follow. While all current Medicare enrollees will also receive the new cards in the mail starting April 2018 to replace their existing cards, the timetable for implementing the new cards will start earlier. "Any beneficiary that starts participating in Medicare...
With a myriad of choices, and window that's open only a few weeks to make them, the annual Medicare Open Enrollment period begins Oct 15. Those new to the program, as well as seniors who have been enrolled for some time, need to pay special attention to a few do's and don'ts when making those selections. "Be aware of the deadlines," said Karen Munger, a licensed insurance agent and owner of Karen Munger Insurance Services, a Visalia insurance agency that specializes in...
While it can be hard to find a great deal these days, sometimes knowing a few 'secrets' can help. Even at a place like Costco. Although most shoppers know that buying in bulk on some items can certainly save money, there are a few tips you can use at the giant retailer in south Visalia. Certainly there are savings to be had at their basic price, like the store's top seller, its Kirkland toilet paper, an item that moves at the rate of $60,000 per week according to a store spoke...