Enjoying an active life in Concordia.
By: Al Wicklund
MONROE The number of activities at the Concordia planned retirement community can be overwhelming to a new resident, Mildred Goodwin, an active Concordia resident, said recently.
"We have something like 60 organizations.
"The impulse for many new residents is to try everything from bridge to tennis, golf, discussion groups and more. That doesn’t work. There’s too much to do," she said.
Ms. Goodwin said most residents settle down and focus on what they find to be their chief interests or simply on those activities that are great sources of friendships.
Even a casual observer of life at Concordia is impressed by the level of activity.
On an average weekday, community life is marked by the laughing and chatting of the walkers, the good-natured heckling of billiard and table tennis players and the quieter concentration of the card players the bridge tables get a lot of use. And, always busy centers of competition are the tennis courts and the golf course and its driving range and practice putting greens.
A major center of activity is the Concordia clubhouse with its variety of meeting and activity rooms and lounges suitable for social and educational events.
Donna Marie Gelesky, clubhouse director, said one of the strengths of the community is its number of socially skilled members who welcome new people to their activities.
"There are a lot of caring people here who set the tone for our activities," she said.
Ms. Gelesky said that of Concordia’s 3,500 residents, some 500 to 1,000 are involved in clubhouse activities on a regular basis.
The clubhouse has a walking room, exercise room, indoor pool, arts and crafts room, billiard room, library, card-table areas, table tennis room, a darkroom, a scrabble center, party room and aerobics room.
The aquasize classes are a popular pool activity. Drier, but no less active, are the folk-dance classes, regular dance classes, ceramics and dramatics.
Angie Foglia, a senior at The College of New Jersey who spent some 50 hours at Concordia doing a research study titled "Staying Youthful: A Study of Seniors," said "camaraderie" is important in the Concordia community.
She said there are friends who play table tennis and billiards regularly and brighten their games with humor.
"Their games are as much about socializing as they are about competing, The (players) are always teasing each other and telling jokes," Ms. Goglia said.
She said it appeared the players dealt with serious discussions such as about infirmities within the framework of their teasing and jokes.
Eli Drapkin, a longtime resident of the community, said a positive aspect of the community’s activities is the absence of pressure.
"If you want to participate, there are plenty of opportunities in a variety of activities, but, if you prefer to sit home and read or take leisurely walks, that’s your choice," he said.
One of Mr. Drapkin’s selections of clubs was the astronomy club. The club is celebrating its 15th anniversary this month.
Mr. Drapkin said the club started with 28 members (20 of those are still active) and had grown to 125.
During the club’s period of growth the presidents have been in addition to Mr. Drapkin and the current president Dr. Gilbert S. Panson Lionel Domash, Donald Landsman, Jerome Wagner, Sam Bass and Henry Rand.
Mr. Drapkin said the club throughout its 15 years has been blessed with distinguished speakers, all of whom came to Concordia and spoke without receiving a fee.
The speakers, he said, have included ranking faculty members from Rutgers, Princeton and Columbia universities and Swarthmore College. They also had directors and staff from planetariums, including the American Museum of Natural History, the Trenton Museum, the Newark Museum and the Somerset Planetarium, scientists from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration and Dr. Robert Woodrow Wilson, who won a Nobel Prize in 1978 when, at Bell Labs, he discovered the cosmic microwave background radiation that supported the big-bang theory for the origin of the universe.
Mr. Drapkin points with pride to the wide range of interests in a community that has a cribbage club for card players who want something different from the usual games to the study groups at the clubhouse and in the Brandeis University National Women’s Committee program.
Elaine Pepperman, one of the presidential triumvirate of the Concordia Chapter of the Brandeis University NWC, said the program is headed toward another big year.
"We have 638 members and the number will get larger while we enroll people for study groups that will start in late August," Ms. Pepperman said.
She said the program will have 31 separate study-group areas with 64 study groups.
Ms. Pepperman said the program will have its usual variety of study areas, including literature, Islam, healthy living, investing and music and music-and-poetry.
She said the study groups will have 85 moderators, all volunteers from the Concordia community.
She also said the chapter is supporting the Brandeis University library, the work-scholar program for students working in the library, the Brandeis scholarship program as well as the Brandeis University Humanitarian Center and the International Center dedicated to the search for peace in the world.
Other large and active organizations in Concordia are the Men’s Club, the Christian Fellowship Club, the Seniors Club and the Civic Association.
There also is the Concordia Deborah Hospital Chapter, supporting Deborah Hospital’s work in heart health, and the crocheting club, which makes warm, comfortable items for its number of good works projects.
Township Council President Irwin Nalitt, who was one of the first to occupy a Concordia home when the community opened on April 20, 1982, said Concordia has always been marked by a high level of mental, physical and social activity.
The community is composed of 1,800 condos and houses for persons 55 years old or older. Its rules and regulations are set by an elected seven-member board of trustees. The board hires directors who are responsible for the day-to-day operation of the community.
Concordia has round-the-clock nursing service available.
For variety, there are planned bus trips to New York City, Atlantic City, Philadelphia and other places of interest. The trips start at the clubhouse.