Senior Center's grand prize for raffle offers memories, comfort
Ever since its founding many moons ago, and especially during the past decade at its “new” home at 1291 Hartford Avenue, the Johnston Senior Center has been many things for countless people.
For senior citizens, there’s the always-popular bingo inside the JSC several times a week, as well as to famed Foxwoods Resort and Casino in Ledyard, Conn.
For others, there’s just about every phase of senior adult living, from exercise to computer classes to free services like preparing income taxes, flu clinics and much more.
For some, it’s simply a meeting place that gets folks out of the house and come to the JSC where they enjoy camaraderie at a luncheon.
There are even trips, like to the famed Turning Stone Resort in New York and places like Sicilia, Iceland and Portugal, just to name a few. In short, if the JSC doesn’t have the specific program – that even ranges from quilt making to piano lessons – it probably doesn’t exist.
Then there are fundraisers that afford the nationally accredited nonprofit to either add to or introduce new and exciting programs. One such fund-raiser recently produced what Assistant Director Millie Santilli called “a heart-warming and tear-jerking story that speaks volumes for what we strive to do here”
Anthony Zompa, the JSC’s executive director, simply said, “Incredible; just incredible.”
Back when Activities Assistant Jean D’Arezzo was seeking donations for a raffle that will further help fund a new JSC bus, a relatively newcomer named Barbara Coleman inquired about the types of raffle prizes the center was looking for.
D’Arezzo, who also serves as Sunshine Secretary, explained that prizes included mostly gift certificates to well known restaurants.
Soon thereafter, Coleman was told D’Arezzo that she told her son Jake Coleman about the raffle and that he wanted donate a prize.
“We were all thrilled,” said Santilli. “How many times does a place like ours get to have a rocker-recliner as the top raffle prize? That’s why we held off with the drawing until after Christmas because we made it the top prize.”
But that’s what happened, courtesy of Jake Coleman – a Johnston resident who manages the La-Z-Boy store on Bald Hill Road in Warwick.
Needless to say, once the prize was announced, tickets started to sell like hot cakes and as Santilli said earlier this week, “We were obviously thrilled with the results and we just can’t thank La-Z-Boy enough for the generous donation.”
What Zompa, Santilli, D’Arezzo and the JSC family later learned, was that Jake Coleman made the unique donation in honor of his mother while also remembering his later father.
“It is with great pleasure to be able to support the Johnston Senior Center that in turn supports so many others,” Jake Coleman said. “The [JSC] offered my mother an opportunity to socialize, make new friends and provide her with many different types of adventures that helped get her out of the house and begin living again.”
He explained that “when my father passed away I moved my mother to live with me in Johnston. We were all devastated at his sudden loss, and we prepared for the difficult road ahead. The Johnston Senior Center played a big part in our healing process. I had whisked my mom out of her world (on Cape Cod, Mass.) and brought her into mine. In doing so, she was relocated to a different state and although now closer to her family, most everyone else she knew was left behind.”
Coleman, whose donation was won by Anna Polsena, a popular JSC member, then offered: “For that reason, it brought me great pleasure to be able to donate one of our spectacular chairs to the Johnston Senior Center as a prize for the fundraiser. I was also honored to present Anna with the chair in her choice of color and was so excited to hear hat she had always wanted but never owned a La-Z-Boy recliner.”
