Vida Senior Centers

         MAKE THE 2024 CHRISTMAS SEASON A MEMORABLE ONE

                                 FOR VIDA'S SENIORS 

Vida Senior Centers has been supporting low-income seniors struggling to age in place in the Washington DC area, for more than 50 years. The seniors are mostly but not exclusively Hispanic.  They are first generation immigrants. For them, the Christmas celebrations bring more pain than joy.  It makes them feel alone, abandoned, forgotten.  

Aging brings challenges for all of us, financial challenges, health challenges, cognitive challenges, but imagine having to face all those challenges in a country that is linguistically and culturally foreign to you. Vida's clients are mostly elderly women, single, widowed or divorced.  They stem from 21 central and South American countries.  They have worked hard all their lives at low paying jobs and now face old age displaced, poor and alone.  They see Vida Senior Centers as their safe haven, their home away from home, a place where they meet others just like them, where they can speak Spanish, enjoy dancing, knitting, singing, try Zumba and Yoga, where they can take English lessons, learn computer skills, mount cooking  competitions and argue endlessly about the beauties of their specific native countries.  But mostly it is a place where they can feel safe and where they can always find someone to listen to them. 

As the holiday season approaches the seniors struggle to find the funds to celebrate. They miss the homes they cam from. their family dinners, their communities and their friends.  Vida is setting up collections for fresh turkeys and chickens to donate to the seniors, stuffings, gravies and vegetables, fresh produce and small gifts.  As you prepare your own celebrations, please keep the seniors in mind. Your small gift will have a big impact on the life of a displaced senior far away from home.