Seniors from Life Enrichment Center of Oyster Bay spread spring spirit with care packages

With Easter and Passover coming right around the corner, people are getting into the charitable spirit of the season. Oyster Bay’s Life Enrichment Center is doing their part to spread the season’s cheer by giving out “Homebound Spring Basket” care packages to some of the elderly residents in the hamlet and surrounding area.

For the last three decades, the center has been giving out care packages to local seniors stuck at home around the holidays. Mary Frignani, who runs the care packages program, explained that they initially started doing it for Christmas and Hanukkah, but it was so popular that they eventually expanded it to other holidays.

“It’s just a way to remind our seniors that are homebound that we still think about them and care about them so much,” Frignani said. “We want to remember them and let them know that they’re always part of our senior center.”

The number of homebound seniors has risen in the past few years, she said, due to the coronavirus pandemic, which effectively trapped many immuno-compromised individuals in their homes. She added that even now when the darkest days of the pandemic are over, there are still some seniors who have not returned to the center for a variety of reasons.

The staff at the center keep track of the seniors who stop attending the center’s events and activities, staying in contact with them and making sure they have everything they need. Frignani explained that they’ll typically call each senior once a month, just to check in and chat with them.

To remind them that they’re still welcome and remembered, Frignani, other members of the center team and volunteers from amongst the seniors put together Easter-themed care packages to hand-deliver. The packages included simple goodies like chocolate bunnies, kalanchoe flowers to represent spring and rebirth, as well as gift cards hand-made by members of the center’s craft group.

This year the center put together roughly 30 such packages for housebound seniors. The packages are hand-delivered by some of the sprightlier seniors at the center, who drive to the various residences of their homebound compatriots.

Marilyn and Bernie Schereck are two such volunteers, and this was their first year helping to deliver the care packages. The Schereck’s explained that they’ve only been coming to the center for a little over a year, but when they heard about the program, they said they were happy to get involved and to help out their fellow seniors.

“We were housebound ourselves for two years during Covid until we discovered this wonderful center,” Marilyn said.

The Schekers delivered a ackage to Margaret Schedra, a nonagenarian resident of East Norwich. Schedra had been going to the center from 1995 up until the coronavirus pandemic, when she began spending more time at home with her family.

Schedra has received care packages from the center in the past, but still reacted with delight. She invited the Scherecks in, welcoming them into her home.

Schedra explained that although she doesn’t come to the center anymore, she still has many fond memories of the roughly two and half decades she spent there. She was especially enthusiastic about the kindness and thoughtfulness of the center’s employees, who she described as some of the most caring people on Long Island.

“The people at the center have been very good all throughout the years. Even after I stopped going, they still remember me,” Schedra said. “I was very much excited to get my care package, because you worry that people forget you after a while.”