BrooklineCAN Blog

As part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), Brookline will receive $43 million in funds to remedy COVID-19’s impact on our community.
The Town of Brookline is facilitating a community engagement process to collect input and ideas from community members about investment priorities for ARPA funding.
The Brookline Community Foundation is supporting this process by hosting a series of active listening sessions and community engagement events to hear from community members about where ARPA funding could be used to make transformative investments in Brookline today and for generations to come.

Register for one of the following virtual listening sessions hosted by BCF:
Wednesday, November 10 from 10:00 – 11:30 am.
Click to register

Wednesday, November 17 from 8:30 – 10:00 am
Click to register 

For suggestions read Betsy Pollack’s (president of the Senior Center’s Board of Directors) letter. Click here.

Once again Covid-19 has derailed the Brookline Senior Center’s largest fundraiser of the year.  In its place is the “No-Gala” Autumn Benefit, with more benefits for donors and sponsors.  Your sponsorship supports medical transportation, hunger reduction, client emergencies, and programs to help older adults cope with social isolation and depression.  Sponsorship levels range from $100+ to $2,500+; sponsors will receive gift cards from local Age-Friendly businesses, as well as ads in the next edition of “Ask a Geriatrician” at the $300+ and above levels. For full details on sponsorship (due by November 19), click here.   Please also know that donations of any amount are graciously accepted.  For more information, contact Ruthann Dobek at rdobek@brooklinema.gov or 617-730-2756.

Google Drive Explained and Explored
Explore all the options available in the Google Drive. Learn to use Google Drive’s cloud storage service to save files to the cloud and access them from your smartphone, tablet, or computer. Practice creating, uploading, navigating to, and organizing your files, storing and managing photos in the cloud, and using word processing and spreadsheets on Google Docs and Google Sheets. You will need to have a Google account.  Four Tuesdays, November 9-30, 6:30 pm.

Electric Vehicles for the EV Curious
Session 1, November 3, 2021, a moderated discussion of the developing policy issues and responses to your questions on how EVs function, store energy and recharge, and cost savings, and purchase rebates. Session 2, November 10, 2021, a moderated discussion about charging options for EVs. Two Wednesdays, 7-9 pm.
There is a discount for seniors!  For more information and to register, call BCAE at 617-730-2700.

On Monday, November 29th at 1pm at the Senior Center, join us for a concert by Winter and Woo! Winter and Woo are Bob Winter, renowned Boston Pops pianist and everyone’s favorite accompanist (toured with Cleo Laine, Mel Torme, Hildegarde, Diahann Carroll and Henry Mancini who used to say Bob was the best pianist he had ever known) and vocalist Elaine Woo who leavens her jazz stylings with 40 years of people skills as an MGH internist. This distinguished cabaret duo will entertain with tunes from the Great American Songbook. It promises to bring smiles and get toes tapping. Please register at 617-730-2770.

Goddard House is sponsoring two programs for older adults with Parkinson’s. On Thursdays from 4:00 – 5:00 pm,  Living Musically with Parkinson’s, will feature music therapist and neuroscientist, Joshua Min, who specializes in working with older adults, and those living with Parkinson’s, to help improve their quality of life through the power of music.  Learn techniques, songs, and concepts to strengthen and uplift your body, your brain, and your mood.

Tai Chi for Parkinson’s is offered Tuesdays 10:30 am -11:30 pm. Designed specifically to improve strength, balance, flexibility, mental focus and emotional tranquility, tai chi has been proven to help minimize the symptoms of Parkinson’s. Join Instructor, Ruth Schechter, an experienced tai chi teacher for older adults and individuals living with Parkinson’s. Trained as a musician, Ruth has experience with the Alexander Technique and the Feldenkrais Method, as well as tai chi.

Both programs are free and on Zoom.  For more information and to register contact Christine Nagle at cnagle@goddardhouse.org

Join Jennifer Barber, Brookline’s current poet laureate, for a poetry workshop series on November Mondays at 1:00 pm (5 weeks) at the Brookline Senior Center. The group will read well-known and lesser-known contemporary poems together, discussing how each poem creates its effects. We’ll each keep a poetry journal to record our favorite moments in the poems and for guided in-class writing of our own. At the first meeting, Jennifer will distribute composition books to use as journals during the class. Please register at 617-730-2770.

Have you been isolated during the pandemic with limited access to technology or the internet? Are you relying on a small phone and a limited cellular plan? The Town of Brookline is offering a FREE tablet and internet service to qualifying elders or adults living alone. For questions about participation in the Tech Buddies Pilot Program, call or email Sarah Kaplan, skaplan@brooklinema.gov
or 617-730-2329. Office of Diversity, Inclusion, and Community Relations.

On Monday, November 8 at 1:00 pm at the Brookline Senior Center, join in for this unique event of Tradition + Art + History = Drama. The Birds’ Head illustrated Hagaddah, created over 700 years ago, is a fascinating text with an intriguing story. We will explore the unusual renderings and collaboratively read a short new play about the discovery of this controversial object. Where do historically significant ritual items belong in the 21st century? Come join the discussion with playwright and educator Dr. Miriam Rosalyn Diamond, and learn about her family connection to this document. Please register at 617-730-2770.

I attended my first meeting of the Livable Community Advocacy Committee on January 12, 2015. I had no idea what a wonderful difference my becoming a member of the LCAC was going to make to my life.

Though I had lived in Brookline for over 25 years, I had not been involved in any aspect of Brookline’s government or any Brookline volunteer organizations (including BrooklineCAN). As a recent retiree, I had attended some literature courses and traveled, but I wasn’t really using any of the skills I had spent a lifetime developing.

I was at that LCAC meeting because I had been working on a plan to help more Brookline senior homeowners qualify for the state’s circuit-breaker income tax credit. Committee members welcomed my plan and offered excellent suggestions about how to improve it.  A few encouraged me to consider running for Brookline Town Meeting, something that I had never considered doing. I did run for Town Meeting and was elected.  I’ve since been re-elected twice and have been a member of Brookline’s Advisory Committee (the Town’s finance committee) since 2018.

I continued to attend LCAC meetings and became increasingly involved with a whole array of BrooklineCAN activities. Now, as Chair of the LCAC, I try to keep meetings just as welcoming and interesting as when I first attended. At our meetings, we convey useful information about Brookline government and discuss a variety of proposed Town Meeting warrant articles of special interest to seniors.

Unlike other committees, becoming a member of the LCAC comes with no obligations. Everyone on our mailing list receives an agenda for our next monthly meeting, along with a Zoom link, and notes summarizing what was discussed at last month’s meeting. Anyone interested in attending who is not already a member of the LCAC should contact me at susangranoff@msn.com

Attending LCAC meetings may not change your life the way it did mine, but it will certainly make you more informed about Brookline, introduce you to many interesting Brookline residents who you might not otherwise have the opportunity to meet (particularly in these COVID times), and help you to become a better advocate for matters of special concern to Brookline’s older population. (Susan Granoff)