On a beautifully bleak and blustery Wednesday morning, we drove down to Bayside Community Center, a quaint facility with a community garden to greet us on our way in. Upon entry, the community center was overwhelmingly welcoming; areas to rest and relax, postings to up-and-coming events, a table with flower bouquets on sale to celebrate the upcoming Lunar New Year, murals and paintings on the wall, and “Idea Garden” and a camp-like area with lawn chairs, faux grass, and benches to meet and mingle. Although there were not many elders present at today’s Zumba session due to the ongoing rain, there were still a handful that join us in an extremely tiring and sweaty (but FUN) time. I was truly no match for our elders, who danced literal circles around me. After an hour of heavy perspiration, we mingled with each other and enjoyed breakfast and conversation. It was nice to see that so many elders (and hearing of even more) had a place like Bayside to congregate, be active, and be social with others. Anyone and everyone is vulnerable to social isolation, and I’m a strong proponent of the idea that social isolation is a major contributor to markers of physical and mental well-being. Community centers like Bayside therefore fulfill an important role in our towns and cities: providing an opportunity to ensure health and happiness not only through activities like Zumba but simply in interacting with other faces, new and old alike. Even better, it was gratifying to see that it was culturally-inclusive, with advertising for community programming in a variety of languages, such as Spanish, Vietnamese, Mandarin, and Cantonese. It was fitting that, once it was time for us to head back to campus, the sun was out and shining, bright and warm, identical to how my time at Bayside made me feel.
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Andrew NguyenWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
June 2019
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