Where the grown-ups go to play

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Before joining the Sandel Senior Center’s art program, Harold Buck had never painted in his life. Now he can’t stop.

“I have about two dozen paintings from all the three years I’ve been in the class,” said Buck, 76.

His first painting came as a pleasant surprise. “I couldn’t believe that I painted it,” he said. “I’ve never painted anything before. I’m interested now in getting people into my pictures.”

The Sandel Center in Rockville Centre is not a retirement home, but a place for able-bodied seniors to enjoy activities and the company of friends.

“It’s a clubhouse,” said Nancy Codispoti, the program coordinator. “The amount of activities that normally go on in a community that the elders move to, we have it all here.”

Zumba, yoga, knitting and flower arranging are a few of the programs that promote what the center calls “vital aging” for its 350 members.

“I would love the public to understand the seniors here are active and vital,” said Chris O’Leary, director of the village’s Department of Senior Services.

John and Claire Kirkwood joined the center nearly 10 years ago. They’re the chairpersons of the Senior People in Action program, which encourages physical exercise.

“Everybody thinks that senior centers are these old people sitting around and having coffee in the morning,” said John, 80. “It’s anything but that.”

John and Claire run a dance program, which provides an escape for some patrons.

“I do see some people that I know on a personal basis who have really severe problems at home,” Claire said. “I think we affect them because they come out here, they dance their hearts out and they look relaxed at the end of that hour.”

Student volunteers also help the Sandel Center function. Max LoSardo, a 16-year-old South Side High School student, helps seniors learn to use gadgets such as iPads and cell phones.

“I just try to simplify things for them and put it into terms that they’ll understand,” said LoSardo. “Technology is so important now it’s easy to get overwhelmed.”

Joan Frey, 77, was sitting in the lunchroom with her friends. She had joined the Sandel Center after the death of her husband.

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