Senior Trick-or-Treaters Celebrate Halloween

The Winners!  4th Place-Christine Diedrick as the Energizer Bunny; 2nd Place-Dennis Tyburski as R2D2; 3rd Place Joan Annen as the Spooky Alien; 1st Place-Bernie Puchaja as the Chubby Bikini Lady!

A merry crowd of smiling area seniors, in a festive array of colorful costumes, gathered together at the Donna Smallwood Activities Center in October to welcome the spirits of Halloween! The Center was ablaze with colorful leaves, cornstalks, scarecrows, grinning pumpkins, witches, and autumn decorations, as the joyful senior trick-or-treaters sang and danced in their costumes, laughing and sharing stories of their elaborate attire at the Center’s Annual Halloween Party.

The festively costumed participants marched in a rousing parade, posing for the judges of the costume contest. The dozens of wonderful costumes were so imaginative, beautiful, scary and funny, and represented so much time and effort, the judges were faced with a nearly impossible decision! But they finally picked the four winners. The festive crowd enjoyed a delicious Octoberfest lunch, and toasted and shared their memories of Halloweens past. (In Parma, in the 40s and 50s, we did our trick-or-treating on two nights, including the night before Halloween, known as Beggar’s Night, and chanted “Please Help the Poor” at the doors. Remember?) With Glenn Toth's music filling the hall, they whirled to waltzes and polkas, jitterbug and swing, tango and Latin dances so popular now, as lively line dancers circled the floor. The seniors love the music and especially love to dance! Those who weren’t dancing were tapping their toes, singing, and enjoying the festive atmosphere and the beautiful melodies. After a delicious dessert, refreshments and bowls of punch, many party-goers bought raffle tickets and won  great prizes — lovely centerpieces and great raffle prizes of beautiful autumn and Halloween baskets, many gift cards to local merchants, yummy Halloween chocolates,  tickets to the next dance and beautiful hand-mad autumn lap quilts. A truly fun and exciting reason to dress up, fill their day with music, meet old friends, and make new ones!

Dances are held on the third Wednesday of each month,11-3,  including lunch, fun, raffle prizes and surprises, great company, and dancing to local area musicians. (You can also come at 1:00 for the "Dance only.")  Their next Party and Dance will be the "Turkey Trot" on Wednesday, November 15th.  Visit their website at www.smallwoodcenter.com for more details, or call the Center at 440-885-8800.    

Judy Martins

Judy Martins

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Volume 9, Issue 11, Posted 4:48 PM, 11.01.2017