Article by Betty Traynor, Convenor
Since 2010, the Community Living Campaign has been active at St. Francis Square (SFQ), a 50 year plus residential cooperative founded by the ILWU with close to 300 units in the Western Addition, across from Japantown. Our CLC group founded by Marcia Peterzell and Linda Silver was a very welcome addition to the Square as there are many seniors living here, who moved in when they were “kids” in the ‘60s and ‘70s and are now aging in place. Many seniors welcomed the chance to join the CLC committee to learn about issues important to them, to exercise together, and to just have fun.
The CLC sponsors birthday parties through the year where everyone is invited to celebrate those with birthdays in the past four months, with party favors, music and gifts. We have Coffee and Conversation three Friday mornings a year with breakfast snacks and relevant speakers on hearing, the vial of life, health issues, and aging empowerment to name a few. One of our members, Jimmy Bynum, started up a weekly Walking Group on Wednesday mornings to get around our delightful neighborhood from the Fillmore to Japantown and in between. To specifically help those in need at SFQ, the CLC group formed “Neighbor to Neighbor” soliciting volunteers from all our residents who could be called on to give a hand: give a drive to the grocery store or medical appointment, move a couch, walk a dog. The volunteers are on-call and not far away. Our monthly meetings on second Tuesday mornings in our Social Hall are when we plan all that is coming up and look back on what we’ve done to improve for next time.
We decided recently that we needed to add some enjoyable “outside the Square” activities, so we’ve met for happy hour at a local club, Sheba Lounge on Fillmore, and one of our Square members who owns Picnic on Third restaurant in SOMA invited us to check it out for lunch a few months ago. We not only had a great meal but were treated as honored elders by the owner and her staff. So for now that is the Community Living Campaign at St. Francis Square Cooperative—ready, willing and able to be there for each other and to have fun along the way. For more information, contact Betty Traynor at btraynor@att.net.
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