Serene Karplus, Nederland.   Nederland Area Seniors and our newly renamed Mountain Peak Life program enjoyed another successful year providing wellness programs to our mountain older adults. During this calendar year, we served 360 older adults through the many activities listed below and over 1,000 additional community members who participated in our community outreach events.

NAS served over 4,600 meals to over 900 guests this year. The classic lunch program on Mondays and Wednesdays served over 2,370 meals, including those sent out to homebound seniors unable to join us on site.

As our new program Mountain MidLife reached its third birthday, its name begged for more inclusion, to let all adults know they are welcome at all activities. We now offer all events under the name Mountain Peak Life to ensure that all feel welcome.

While our Older Americans Act grant assistance for nutrition services only supports meals over age 60, thanks to other support resources we are able to keep prices low enough to attract younger and older adults to sit together to enjoy a meal, build community, and get to know friends of all ages.

In addition to our twice-weekly lunches and monthly dinners, we continued to offer both Saturday breakfasts and Sunday brunches, so we could serve a variety of lifestyle needs. The Mountain Peak Life group also enjoyed hikes, interest group gatherings about books and social beverage tasting, educational programs and cultural outings.

Our special community outreach events – the Frozen Dead Guy Days Pancake Breakfast, the Nederland Coming Home Days Pancake Breakfast, the Italian Night Community Dinner, and the big Holiday Mountain Market and Silent Auction each brought together over 1,000 community members.

We are proud that our seniors step up to volunteer and serve all ages including kids, flipping thousands of pancakes several times in the year to serve over 780 meals at these morning events. In our second year of the event called Italian Night, the community social dinner for folks of all ages, we served over 110 in just a few hours. Our Holiday Mountain Market Cafe fed hundreds more.

We are not just about gathering around delicious, nutritious food. We are the Senior Center of the Mountains, attracting friends from Allenspark to Black Hawk and all the canyons that connect to the Peak to Peak Highway.

In addition to our existing fitness, pickleball and hiking programs, we offered skiing and kayaking this year, as well as many educational and cultural opportunities. Our writing groups and book club expanded so much we now host many of the meetings at the local library.

Many memorable outings during the past year offered us more opportunities to get to know one another and experience our culture. They ranged in style from the Stock Show Parade to the 5 Points Jazz Festival, a Rockies baseball game to women’s roller derby, social wine tastings to a pub rugby game, a Spindle Factory Tour to a planetarium show.

Films ranged from food waste education to silent films with live musical accompaniment to the wide variety at the Boulder International Film Festival. Workshops off site discussed caregiving, elder abuse, fitness at fifty, growing B/Older, senior law and aging well. The visual, musical, and culinary delights at our local Art at the Center openings couldn’t be beat, even by the fabulous trip to the Denver Art Museum for Rembrandt’s etchings. Another museum trip included the Argo Mine & Mill.

Central City Opera’s performance of “The Magic Flute” charmed, as did Boulder Opera Company’s “Cosi van Tutti” and the scenes and arias at Opera in the Park. On the lighter musical side, we attended the BDT Stage dinner theater production of “Annie” and some attended the local FACE Vocal Band concert. Multiple fine performers regaled us at the Mapleton Porchfest. For our own amateur voices, some of us sang along at the World Singing Day and again at our holiday dinner.

On the school front, The Loquations treated us to their silvery vocals at our holiday lunch, several from our group attended the high school musical, and we enjoyed the middle school’s Harvest Feast invitation to join them for a nice meal. We hosted the 2nd and 3rd graders for four intergenerational sessions of interviews at our lunches in the spring.

Dancers kicked up the dust at several outdoor festival events in Boulder and dozens joined hands with the International Folk Dance demonstration at our Mountain Peak Life dinner (and continue to dance together weekly on Mondays at the Community Center). Many swung the night away at the Avalon Swing Dances or danced a jig at the local Very Nice Brewing Company performances of The Gael. On the professional front, Boulder Ballet wowed fans with a variety performance at the Boulder band shell and “The Nutcracker.”

Mountain Peak Life diners enjoyed entertainment from a variety of musicians from classical pianist Paul Srein to Arwen Ek to Blackdog to Strangebyrds and speakers on travel in Portugal and the history of the Arlington Cemetery. Some dinner nights were devoted to relaxing together over games.

Lunches provided monthly speakers on topics including the AirMedCare Network, TRU Pace, the Via mountain z-Trip rides program, senior tax breaks, Central City history, identity theft prevention, AAA’s Age Well Strategic Plan (with an honorary visit from the State Unit on Aging), acupuncture, Silver Surfers tech training, whole grains, falls prevention refresher, food handling safety, reverse mortgages, nutrition buzz words, preventing adverse drug reactions and understanding Medicare plans.

Many of us stayed on our feet thanks to registered foot care nurse Debbie Neal, providing 93 care visits throughout the year. Recently added to our monthly services is acupuncturist Norah Charles to help heal our ailments and support renewed health. Our fitness/wellness and educational/cultural activities listed above served over 300 people with 3,000 services in 2018.
We said good-bye to a few of our friends, fellow seniors, staff and volunteers. We welcomed our new administrative assistant, Omayra Acevedo, and appreciated the work of the silent auction coordinator, Rhianna Williams.

We celebrate every week the hundreds of hardy mountain folks who continue to endure our winter winds to enjoy the magnificence of the days in between and keep showing up at events to make this such a wonderful community. We thank everyone who volunteers their time and energy to make so much happen for all of us and to the many who contribute funds to keep it all going.

Thank you everyone for another tremendous year together. We look forward to another year of new directions and experiences! Happy New Year!

All ages of adults are welcome at all events. Sign up for all meals and events at 303-258-0799 or Meetup.com/Mountain-MidLife-Social-Group or by email at NederlandAreaSeniors@gmail.com. Meals are served at the Nederland Community Center. Please call two days ahead for lunch reservations (more for dinners and breakfasts if possible). Missed the deadline? Call anyway. Please note that all age 60+ are welcome at meals regardless of ability to contribute financially.

(Originally published in the January 10, 2019, print edition of The Mountain-Ear.)