Thursday, October 1, 2026
Nursing homes are sometimes thought of as calm spaces where seniors sit idly and quietly watch the days go by. That was certainly not the case on May 7 when nearly 150 older adults gathered on the waterfront patio of the Long Beach Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center for a sunny afternoon of food, dancing and classic rock and roll from Elvis, Tina Turner, The Beatles and more.
“May is Older Americans Month,” said Nikki Prestano, assistant director of community engagement at Cassena Care, “So we wanted to have a senior ‘spring fling by the bay.’” Cassena Care operates more than a dozen nursing and rehabilitation facilities across Long Island and New York City, including the Long Beach Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center.
This was the first time the “spring fling” event was organized and the public response was enthusiastic. Community members from the Magnolia Senior Center, the Point Lookout Senior Center, the MLK Center, and surrounding areas turned out for the afternoon-long celebration.
Attendees were entertained with a barbecue lunch and musical bingo — matching songs to scoresheets — as well as DJ-coordinated music and a dance lesson from the internationally recognized, NYC-based Pacemakers dance troupe — a collection of self-professed “old people” with performers ranging from 60 to over 80 years old.
“We’re on a mission to break stereotypes about old people and to celebrate old age,” said Susan Avery, who founded The Pacemakers in 2019 after inadvertently going viral online and being cyberbullied for being a woman in her 50s, at the time a non-professional dancer, who danced at a public event.
“We are old and there’s nothing wrong with that,” Avery continued. “We’re also vibrant, sexy, active. It’s all the other things. We’re here about visibility.” Avery and the Pacemakers team led participants in a range of simple dance routines and movements from past years including the classic twist, the swim and the jerk.
Vendor booths also featured in the afternoon experience with the Long Beach Public Library, the Long Beach Historical Society, Long Beach Clean-up and other local organizations offering information and services.
“So far it’s been great,” Prestano said of the inaugural event, “so I think we’ll do it every year.”
