Local Senior Center to Hold Speed Dating Event (PHOTO)
PHOTO| Montgomery Recreation
Valentine’s Day is right around the corner, and the Holiday Park Senior Center located in Silver Spring is getting into the spirit. On Wednesday, February 17, the senior center will be hosting a speed dating event for those aged 55 and older.
According to Holiday Park Senior Center Director Dolores Ustrell, the purpose of the event is to promote companionship.
Ustrell said that the winter season is a difficult time for seniors, especially if they suffer a loss of a loved one. “While for younger people it’s very easy to go out and make friends, I think as we get older we become more introverts or more insecure,” Ustrell said. “We were considering a series of lectures presentations and entertainment programs that address that and help our participants and even other residence in the County …to cope with this feeling of loneliness and how they can really come out and make new friends and hopefully rebuild that network of friends and relationships,” she said.
The speed dating event is a part of the series and inspired by the documentary “Age of Love,” which the center screened today. The event is a partnership between Holiday Parks Senior Center, Senior Connections, and the Senior Social Service Agency.
“It’s this documentary about 30 seniors who go to this church speed dating event and, and this speed dating event that this documentary shows, is for seniors aged between 70 and 90 years old and they go through this experience and it’s not only about love it’s about companionship…after the movie…there’s going to be a discussion about the movie and how we felt about it….following that next week…we’re going to have the actual speed dating,” Ustrell said.
The speed dating event includes, light refreshments and participants will move between individually set-up tables for a series of five-minute dates.
“Of course it’s February, it’s Valentine’s month, we’re trying to see how this theme, connecting all the different pieces together throughout the whole month and see how our patrons like it and how they respond to this approach we’ve taken,” Ustrell said, “we really hope that the way we set it up is going to be a platform to…build a little bit of curiosity from the movie and from the other events we’ve been talking about, companionship and maybe love, you never know.”
The speed dating event on Feb. 17 is open to the public. To register, call 240-777-4999.
Luvvvv is a many splendored thing at Holiday Park Senior Center. Thursday at 1p, the center hosts a film screening and…
Posted by Montgomery County Recreation on Wednesday, February 10, 2016
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