The Olney Senior Program at St. Paul’s Celebrates 20 Years Together

Transformation, growth, and cultural diversity were in the spotlight this past Friday, October 29, as 120 Olney Seniors, attended by local and State dignitaries, gathered in St. Paul’s Parish Hall to celebrate the 20th anniversary of The Olney Senior Program at St. Paul’s!

That program is very much a different one than that which formed in St. Paul’s basement at the corner of 5th Street and Nedro Ave. in 1984. Back then it was several senior citizens, mostly St. Paul’s church members, who gathered daily for what was called the “lunch program.” Well, they still “do lunch” there, and it’s a good lunch at that, but it’s a small miracle that any one of the 65 daily members has time to eat considering all the other things there are to do!

In twenty years the Olney Senior Program has been “transformed” from a “lunch cart” into a bustling center of activity that serves the needs of the area’s active seniors. The program has “grown” from a group of mostly Germanic church members into a diverse and vital community of friends, whose richly varied ethnic and cultural backgrounds accurately reflect that of the Olney section of Philadelphia - one of the most diverse neighborhoods in the city!

“We have about twenty nationalities represented here at the center,” said Annette Lutz, who runs the program. “There are Asians, Eastern and Western Europeans, Pacific Rim nations - you name the nationality, and I’ll show you one of them here at our senior center!”

All of this activity and diversity (and food!) was proudly on display at the anniversary celebration. There was a Tai Chi class that gave a graceful demonstration of the skills they have learned. The many crafts made by these talented seniors were on display, and four of the finest quilts made by the Olney quilters were raffled off in support of the program.

But it was national identity, ethnic diversity and the emphasis on cultural communion that were the hit of the day. The Korean Line Dancing class wowed the crowd with its coordinated ethnic dance demonstration. Those performers consisted of Irish and Korean Americans dancing in harmony to the sweet strains of Korean music. Then, sixteen members of the program, each representing his or her own ethnic heritage, took to the microphone one after another to give a greeting to the gathering in his or her native language. The group heard greetings, to name a few, in Swedish, Swahili, Korean, Irish brogue, Philippine, German, Serbian, Italian, Ukraine, and one good-old Olney-American “Yo, Olney! Wassup?”

This multinational parade of Olneyites delighted onlookers, including representatives from the Philadelphia Corporation of Aging, which funds the program, Lutheran Children and Family Services, which manages the program, and special guest State Senator Shirley Kitchen. Senator Kitchen was pleased to represent the Pennsylvania State Senate in recognizing the achievements of the Olney Senior program, and she presented the center coordinator, Annette Lutz, with a beautiful Senate Proclamation honoring the program’s 20 years of service and contributions to the people of the Olney community.

“We honor and we are happy to support programs like this one that serve the people, and the people of Olney are well served by this program,” said Senator Kitchen.

You can find more about the event and about the Olney Senior Program at St. Paul's on the "Seniors" page of St. Paul's website at http://www.stpaulslutheranchurchonline.org

Happy Anniversary, Olney Senior Program! Glücklicher Jahrestag! Anniversario Felice! Glad årsdag! Srecan godišnjica! Vesel obletnica! And, Yo! Way ta go, Olney!