More and more folks over 50 are looking to their parishes to have fun and build fellowship by joining "senior groups" like those at St. Agnes Parish in Springfield and Our Lady of Lourdes (OLOL) and St. Thomas the Apostle parishes in Decatur.
"Our group has a long tradition here," says Sister JoAn Schullian, OSF, of the Community 55 group, which was first formed in the 1980s for OLOL but also now includes St. Thomas Parish.
"As the name suggests, anybody over 55 is welcome," says Sister JoAn, who is pastoral associate at Our Lady of Lourdes. "But really, most of our people are in their late 60s, 70s and even their 80s."
The Community 55 group meets for 11:30 Mass on the third Wednesday of every month and follow the liturgy up with a potluck lunch. "We like that they attend an extra Mass every month and then we have speakers from Millikin University, Richland Community College, St. Mary's Hospital, Decatur Memorial and the different agencies," Sister JoAn says.
"Sometimes we listen to musical groups. We just ask that every person brings something for the potluck and there are usually about 25 to 35 people who come," she says. "We're usually finished by about 1:45." At Christmas, the group celebrates on a larger scale with a catered meal, musical entertainment and a sing-a-long.
"We also have another group, our Visitation Circle, that goes out to visit the sick at the hospitals and the nursing homes," she says. "I am in charge of both Community 55 and Visitation Circle. Visitation Circle has their large annual gathering in October, so we have a fall or Halloween theme for that."
In Springfield, St. Agnes Parish hosts a group that is fairly new but very active, says Cliff Erwin, who is the former president and now public relations chair for the Young at Heart Club. "We started out in 2009 when we took over for the potluck club that already existed at the parish. About mid-2010 we came up with the name. There are no dues and we just offer a large range of activities. Some months we have more than others."
Although some folks, like Erwin and his wife Donna, attend almost every event, some pick and choose which activities to attend. "For example, we have a quarterly wine tasting event and some people like to attend those; others like the potlucks or the bus trips." Events like the annual evening at the Springfield Muni, trips to Our Lady of the Snows Shrine and dinner theater trips, are especially popular.
"We do a lot of different things. We made a trip to Mundelein to visit our seminarian, Deacon Steve Arisman, and we went to the Vatican Display when it was in St. Louis," says Erwin. "We also have Sunday afternoon events for people who aren't comfortable going out at night."
The Young at Heart Club attendees range in age from a few people who are in their 40s up to those who are in their 80s. Some participants come from other parishes. "I think the majority of the people who attend the most events range in age from about 50 to 70," says Erwin, who is 68.
"Some of us are married couples but we've gone out of our way to welcome singles. In fact, some of the single people have taken on a lot of the leadership responsibility. We appreciate that. I think what is good about this group is that people will just jump in to help," Erwin says.
"We had two purposes in starting this group — to build community and to have fun. I think we've succeeded in both those areas. We've all met a lot of people we probably wouldn't have met otherwise; people that maybe you've seen at Mass and said hello, but you didn't know them. And, we've sure had a lot of fun!"