Creative workarounds are helping senior adults at Cookeville First UMC stay connected and active during COVID. Here are two such programs:

Adventures in Lifelong Learning

Now in its second year, the Adventures in Lifelong Learning program is an educational program aimed primarily at senior adults but open to all members and nonmembers. Pre-COVID, spring and fall sessions lasted five weeks, with each class meeting one hour per week. Topics included cooking, history, genealogy, technology—iPhone use and photography—theology, and exercise. Each class averaged 20 people per class. Participants paid $25 per session; instructors were paid $250.

During COVID, the church is offering a free video series (eight separate lectures) via YouTube and Facebook to all. Members hope to keep the program viable until they can return to in-class sessions. Spring 2021 lectures include: Fun with Flowers, Wine Pairing, How to Write Your Obituary, The Battle of Midway, Cooking Tips for the Beginner, Time Management, and Walking the Way of Wisdom. For more information click here.

Senior Singers

Young at Heart, an active group of senior members, has met monthly for fellowship, until this year. As a result of COVID, meetings were cancelled and members began missing one another. To remedy that, some of the group’s members visit other senior church members who are unable to leave their homes. Wearing masks and carrying Cokesbury hymnals, members stand socially distanced in yards and sing favorite hymns. Since they began, group members have shared love and music to more than 40 church members.