THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, August 1, 1996 TAG: 9607300120
SECTION: NORFOLK COMPASS PAGE: 05 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY JOAN C. STANUS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: 72 lines
After Peggy Garrett's husband died two years ago, she felt lost and alone.
But not for long.
The women of the Bayview Senior Club stepped right in to try and fill the void. They taught her to play cards, they encouraged her to go out for lunch with them, they invited her to their weekly meetings and to participate in fund-raising events.
``You have children, but they have lives of their own,'' Garrett explained. ``There's no way they can be with you all the time. But a lot of these women were in the same boat as I was. They kept me so busy, I didn't have time to dwell on my loss.''
The club and its 50 members have been a godsend for Garrett, who now serves as the group's president.
It has been that way for dozens of senior women throughout Bayview since the club's inception in 1987.
``It started out by word of mouth,'' explained Frances Dillon, one of a handful of women who helped organize the club. ``We kept inviting, inviting and reaching out. Now we've got more people than we know what to do with.''
In fact, in recent years, the club has had to halt its burgeoning membership because of limited space available in the Bayview Recreation Center, where the group meets. Essentially just a gymnasium and meeting room attached to Bayview Elementary School, the center is used for a variety of recreational activities, civic meetings, after-school care and the senior club.
For their Friday morning meetings, the seniors are crammed into space they share with several video games and a pool table. Because of the space problem, they no longer conduct craft classes at the center but instead do their work individually at home.
If we had any more people in the club, we'd be packed in here like sardines,'' Garrett said. ``We just don't have room to do crafts.''
City officials admit that the center is too small. ``It's a very small facility that tries to address the needs of several hundred people a day,'' said Peter O'Halloran, superintendent of recreation maintenance for the city. ``It's intensely programmed. Basically, programs go on there seven days a week.''
But that's changing, thanks to an outcry from residents, who began soliciting the city more than two years ago for a larger facility. Now, the process finally has begun.
As of July 1, the parks and recreation department received $200,000 from City Council to design a new facility that eventually would be built to replace the existing one. The two rooms currently used would revert to the school for its use.
A preliminary concept for the new structure, generated from several neighborhood meetings, calls for a 14,000-square-foot facility equipped with a full-sized gymnasium, a number of meeting rooms, and office and storage space.
O'Halloran said the department is asking for nearly $2 million in construction funding for the 1998 fiscal year. By next July, the design and bidding documents should be completed, he added.
``We're well on our way to having a new center there,'' he said. ``Because of the community's desire and its support, we're strong supporters of this project.''
That's terrific news for groups like the seniors who regularly use the facility.
``Most of us live in Bayview, and we don't want to have to go all the way to Ocean View to meet each week,'' Dillon said. ``We need a new center badly. I know we would have more members if we had more space. There's a lot of widows out who need us. This is just a great way of getting them out of their homes, doing something useful and meeting other people.
``It makes you live longer to get up and go and be active.'' ILLUSTRATION: Staff photo by LAWRENCE JACKSON
Setting up an arts and crafts exhibit by the Bayview Senior Club
are, from left: Mary Banks, Frances Rowe and Mary Overton. The
exhibit was put on at Bayview Elementary School. by CNB