In March 2024 Tsung Tsin Association received a Federal Grant called the New Horizon for Seniors Grant. The funding ends this Saturday, March 29th. Our project was to support the seniors in our association through a healthy aging process by providing exercise programs and seminars that would help them navigate the challenges of everyday life. At the same time these programs would also support social participation and inclusion of seniors.
We are happy to say it was a success. The six seminars were well attended, and feedback was great. Members brought their family and friends who thought the presentations covered topics that were important to seniors and they looked forward to future ones. Seminar attendance and viewing of the videos averaged over 300 for each information talk. It’s not surprising that the Memory Loss topic had the most - 570 viewers. The exercise classes are popular and ongoing. Forty members came to the 12 week muscle strengthening session which was led by a chiropractor. Line dancing and tai chi classes were also helped by the Grant, and the popular ping pong activity received a 5th table.
A weekly pickleball session has been continuing since May, and there is a waiting list for the upcoming Spring season. We are now opening a second session on Mondays. Forty two people signed up for the Thursday game and we have been getting younger people signing up as members. Fourteen new members have come from this group. A father and his son joined, and the son said he had a great time being able to play a sport together with his Dad. He said, “It’s something we have not done in over 15 years. It was so good seeing everyone having so much fun.”
These programs are now a part of TTA’s weekly activities as they have proved to be great for social gathering and exercise. We are glad that the Grant helped in some way to improve our members' physical and mental health.