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Nancy Cohen Helps Seniors Take Flight at Canoe Brook

In her job, it’s not unusual for Nancy Cohen to join senior citizens suited up to fly like skydivers or zipline through the open air.

“We’re not your mother’s senior center,” says Nancy, activities coordinator for Branford’s Canoe Brook Senior Center (CBSC).

If anyone should know, it’s Nancy. While her current tenure at CBSC is now in its 11th year, she got her start at Canoe Brook as a college intern, and went on to a career that’s spanned 40 years (and counting) serving the increasingly active world of seniors living in other Connecticut towns and Branford.

During her first round of work with Branford seniors, the offerings—and the seniors—were very different from today. So was Nancy’s job, which had the title of “outreach craft worker.”

“Think about it. Back in 1979, a lot of the seniors, by the time they were 70, they were elderly, feeble; they could barely move. So I would bring the recreation to their homes,” says Nancy, who worked in that position for two years, starting while she was still in college. “I would take them for a walk, bake with them, do arts and crafts with them, write letters to their families. And I think twice a week, I came in here and I taught craft classes.”

Nancy’s interest in a career in therapeutic recreation was supported by her B.S. in recreation and leisure studies from Southern Connecticut State University, which was the closest type of degree offered to the work she hoped to do.

“At the time, there was nothing in the undergraduate level that would teach you anything about working with seniors. It wasn’t really heard of,” says Nancy.

Nancy remembers always wanting to work with people. Growing up in Windsor, she saw her father care and advocate for an elderly aunt and her grandmother. She was also inspired by the patient, caring work of her mother, a speech pathologist.

“I love people and I had good role models about how you should treat a senior,” she says.

After working in Branford for two years, Nancy moved on to become North Haven’s senior center activities coordinator. Along the way, she got married and eventually left work to raise the Cohens’ two sons. In 1994, when their kids were eight and five, she returned to work for the Town of North Haven. By then, things had changed in the senior community, she found.

“When I went back to work in 1994, the women were in fitness clothes for exercise! I said, ‘What happened?’ It was just totally different. It was the next generation. Most of them had graduated from high school and gone off to college,” says Nancy.

After 11 years serving North Haven seniors, Nancy took a similar job for the Town of Cheshire. Then, 11 ½ years ago, CBSC Executive Director Dagmar Ridgway brought Nancy back to town, hiring her as Branford’s first senior activity coordinator. The Cohens also moved from Hamden to Branford, and Nancy loves being a Branford resident.

At CBSC, Nancy has a firsthand appreciation of today’s very involved, intelligent, inspired, and active senior population. But for those who don’t have Nancy’s daily view, there’s often still somewhat of a stigma surrounding the word “senior.”

“The only roadblock I have now is when I tell people what I do, they just assume I work in a nursing home, which obviously this is not,” says Nancy. “We just do recreation for people who are 60 to 100 years old. They’re very vital. They’re active.”

CBSC offers more than 600 fitness classes a year, from swimming to aerobics, Wii bowling and golf to Tai-Chi, and yoga to tap dancing. Seniors can take as many different classes as desired, all for one $24 fee payable every six months. Other activities range from special interest clubs to informative talks and game days and nights to themed parties, recently released movie screenings, tech help, and safety programs. She plans senior outings to musical and arts events and shopping destinations. Transportation is also provided for Lunch Bunch and Happy Hour. The program’s a win-win for the seniors and the many different local establishments they visit, says Nancy. Both groups meet once a month.

“There are many people who are single, widowed, divorced. Some people don’t drive,” she says. “With Lunch Bunch or Happy Hour, you’re able to go out, socialize, meet new friends, and connect with the same people over and over. We’ve seen a lot of cool friendships develop.”

Working with the Area Agency on Aging, Nancy’s found another way to help seniors connect with others in their community by gathering a Pen Pal Club with local 8th grade students. Nancy says a side benefit to the students is the seniors help them to become comfortable with cursive writing, which is no longer compulsory in school. At the end of the school year, the students come to CBSC to meet the seniors. CBSC seniors also get involved intergenerationally with reading and board game programs that put them together with students at the town’s Murphy and Tisko elementary schools.

Nancy also loves to tap seniors willing to share their talents. She points to one member who volunteers teaching two levels of Latin and also offers “Coffee Break French” lessons. Another shares conversational Italian, another leads a topical news discussion group, and yet another has volunteered to add two additional Tai Chi classes.

“Whenever we can embrace someone’s talents, we do it,” says Nancy.

Membership at CBSC also allows for plenty of other options, from useful offerings like lunch ($3 donation, Monday to Friday at 11 a.m.) to free document-shredding sessions twice a year and unique events like special occasion parties.

“We recently celebrated Midnight at Noon—we celebrate the New Year at lunchtime,” says Nancy. “This year, we had 83 people! People look forward to it.”

Seniors also look forward to Nancy’s annual Hanukkah dinner at CBSC, her gift to seniors.

“I bring all of the traditional cooking that my mother taught me—the brisket, the latkes, the carrots. We roll out the cookies; we do it all,” says Nancy, who thanks her volunteer kitchen crew. “I bring all my tchotchkes I’ve been collecting for a long time, and decorate the tables. I have a collection of menorahs, and they see them, and I have a collection of dreidels, and I share those. It’s just bringing a piece of me to them.”

Year-round, Nancy also schedules self-help educational talks and programs geared to giving senior citizens as much useful information as possible.

It’s important because, as Nancy says, “there’s no handbook that tells you how to age; what to do while you’re aging or what to do once you’re there.”

Part of Nancy’s job involves bringing in programs that keep seniors informed and safe in society. She notes CBSC is a member of TRIAD, which connects local law enforcement and local businesses with the senior community to provide assistance. In addition, the senior center works to provide seniors with updates and discussions of health and mental health issues. On Tuesday, Feb. 26, with assistance from East Shore District Health Department, TRIAD will screen Resilience for seniors. The award-winning documentary film explains how exposure to toxic stress can shorten lives through violence, addiction, and disease.

Nancy also makes sure to find programs that cater to the town’s many adventurous seniors, as proven by the response to some pretty out-of-the-ordinary activities she’s offered in recent years.

“We’ve done crazy things. We’ve zip-lined three times. The first time we went, the oldest woman was 85,” says Nancy, who also braved the line to join in. “Every time I’ve gone, I’ve been very scared—but I can’t let the seniors out-do me!”

In 2018, Nancy took an intrepid group to experience i-Fly Indoor Sky Diving in New York.

“You put a sort of space suit on, and you experience flying inside a tunnel,” says Nancy.

After flying a few steps above the ground, Nancy said everyone on the trip took up the instructor’s offer to fly to the top of the tunnel.

“And the oldest woman in that group was 82!” she says.

All of CBSC’s numerous offerings are published by Nancy in a bi-monthly activities calendar/newsletter that’s also online at www.branford-ct.gov/canoebrook.

It costs $8 per year to join CBSC and, while there is a fee for some programs, many of them are free. Nancy advises anyone interested in getting involved as a member to get in touch with her at 203-315-0684 or ncohen@branford-ct.gov.

“I think the biggest problem is getting your foot in the door,” she says, adding once you do, you’ll be hooked. “The people are just very independent and vibrant and everyone has a cool story to tell.”