McHenry senior citizen group builds community

From the Thursday, July 24, 2008 edition of the Northwest Herald:

McHenry senior citizen group builds community
By DIANA SROKA - dsroka@nwherald.com

McHENRY – Carolyn Herriges missed her friends when she moved to McHenry eight years ago.

Her husband had died three years earlier, and she wanted to live closer to her children. In hopes of building a new social circle, Herriges, 74, joined the McHenry Senior Citizens Club.

“I had to reinvent myself,” Herriges said. “I couldn’t go back to Des Plaines to see my friends.”

For Herriges and a number of other area seniors, the club is a source of fellowship and entertainment.

Each year, more than 1,000 seniors visit the McHenry Township Senior Center, 3519 N. Richmond Road, Johnsburg, said Candie Hitchins, activities director.

Activities at the center range from morning exercise and line dancing to computer lessons and pinochle. Programming is based on survey feedback and visitor input, Hitchins said.

“Our seniors are not shy in telling us what they want here,” she said.

At Church of the Holy Apostles Catholic Church in McHenry, the senior citizens ministry tries to host an event at least once a month. Four Seasons, as the group is called, is described as a ministry for “the chronically gifted.”

“[Outings] usually evolve around getting together, enjoying each other’s company, and looking after each other,” member Dorothy Kuta said. This month, the group is going to lunch at Blarney Island on the Chain O’ Lakes.

Kuta said the approximately 45 members enjoyed seeing familiar faces from church, although nonparishioners were welcome to come on outings.

Most of the seniors who visit the senior center or join local clubs are women whose husbands have died, said Judy Jonas, president of the McHenry Senior Citizens Club.

That was the case for Carolyn Jacobs, 72, of McHenry. Her husband had been gone since 1979, and when she moved to the area in the ’90s, she wanted to meet people.

“When you’re in a strange town and you’re working, you don’t meet anybody,” she said.

She visits the senior center in Johnsburg regularly for line dancing.

Herriges said McHenry was unlike other areas where she had lived because there was a wide variety of opportunities for seniors.

“If [seniors] want to be involved, they really have the opportunity to do that in this area,” Jonas said.