The VNSNY CHOICE Adult Day Center is lucky to have a fantastic group of volunteers that help us serve our members! Volunteers come to us from all walks of life, ages (12 – 80 years old) and cultural backgrounds. They have a wide variety of talents and skills to share with our members, including pet therapy, art, music and computers. Most importantly, they bring companionship and compassion to support our members.     

I recently read a quote from President Woodrow Wilson that moved me and really described our volunteers: “You are not here to…

At the VNSNY CHOICE Adult Day Center in Woodside, Queens, we’re excited that we have begun offering computer classes to VNSNY CHOICE members! Our Activities Coordinator, Michele, has been working hard to recruit and train volunteers and staff to lead this new effort.  

Members are learning about the internet and how to find music, Skype, news, fashion and videos. They are practicing how to use a mouse by playing simple match games and solitaire. On the tablets, they’re playing word games, match games, Family Feud, The Price Is Right and tuning into radio…

Our Adult Day Center is so lucky to have an exceptional group of home health aides caring for our seniors. Our aides come from Partners in Care, a part of the Visiting Nurse Service of New York that’s been providing home care professionals since 1983. Partners in Care has been a dedicated, outstanding partner to the VNSNY CHOICE Adult Day Center since we opened in 2000. Many of our aides have been here for more than 10 years, and the care and compassion they provide is second to none. For the…

It’s been so interesting listening to the reactions to Hurricane Sandy. At the VNSNY CHOICE Adult Day Center, we’ve definitely noticed different generational reactions to the storm. Our seniors are more accepting of the difficult circumstances, especially our seniors from other countries. They tell us that they’ve “seen it all and this is life,” and their expectations about how quickly things should “get back to normal” after the storm are quite different from the younger generations. They seem to have more patience coping with the stress and they focus on…

Let’s say you are a new parent. And in that new role, which you have never experienced before, you find yourself overwhelmed by the little things that used to bring you happiness. You suddenly feel that it takes all of your effort to get out of bed. This is supposed to be an amazing and happy time–at least that is what you were told and that had been your expectation. But here you are, and that baby seems just too much for you to handle. What to do? Babies are born, and…

As a VNSNY CHOICE Rehab Consultant recently told us, “I’ve always been amazed at the cultural diversity of the center.” Being located in Queens, we serve many cultures and we work hard to ensure our center and services are culturally appropriate. Not only do we have staffing and food services to meet the needs of those we serve, but we also adapt activities to focus on inclusion of all cultures.

Last week in our dementia program, we designated a special day to celebrate different cultures. Members wore clothes and brought in…

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The VNSNY CHOICE Adult Day Center is excited to start our first computer club for seniors. We’re lucky to find two exceptional volunteers that are generously donating their time to teach computers to our participants. Many of our participants live with families that have computers, but they don’t know how to use them. Learning computers at the center is opening up a whole new world for them! One of our teachers set up a group email for our seniors, so they’re able to communicate with each other outside…

This morning, I watched with joy, as our members laughed their way through another exercise session. Our Activity Coordinator uses humor to engage the seniors and they happily participate in exercise, despite their functional limitations and pain level. At the VNSNY CHOICE Adult Day Center, we use humor to engage seniors in all types of activities, and here are some reasons why it works!

• Some seniors may not be comfortable participating in activities that are new to them, but humor loosens them up, opens them up to trying something new, and…

On Tuesday, we celebrated Grandparents Day with our friends from the Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and Daisies in Westchester. Victoria, from Troop 1986, has been coming to the center and coordinating activities for the seniors for the past 6 years. Here are some of her thoughts about the day…

Sharing Grandparents Day with the VNSNY CHOICE Adult Day Center and some of my scouts was a great opportunity to celebrate grandparents. By using cooking, I was able to bring my great grandmother’s memory to life. I shared her favorite recipes and cookbooks, which she kept…

The VNSNY CHOICE Adult Day Center is so lucky to partner with Girl Scout Troop 1986 to create fun and meaningful intergenerational programs for our seniors! Congratulations to Victoria, one of our Scouts that wrote and received a grant from Generations United in Washington DC! Funding will go toward an intergenerational nutritionally based program, which will not only help our seniors but will extend way beyond our four walls. The program will include a Grandparents Day event, creation of an intergenerational cookbook and in-home activity kits for 150 seniors in Westchester.

We’re…