CHESAPEAKE — While vaccinations are continuing for the COVID-19 pandemic, the Sybene-Chesapeake Senior Center is still waiting until they feel it is safe to reopen for events.
In the meantime, center director Darlene Green said they have been staying in contact with members.

She said recently, with help from several officials, they gave Easter baskets and fruit baskets to all of their members. These were picked up in a drive through at the center’s location, in a modular unit next to the Chesapeake Community Center.

It is usually around this time of year that the center is beginning planning for their annual Lawrence County Senior Day at the county fairgrounds in May.

However, Green said that event is canceled this year, due to to limits on mass gatherings.

She said the hope is that they will be able to have it on a small scale later in the year as conditions improve.

She said her members have been eager to get back together, having not had events since last March when the pandemic began.

She said it has been a long year, with a few members dying from COVID-19.

For now, they are staying in touch via social media. In recent weeks, Green has been highlighting the activities of individual seniors during the quarantine year.

“We have some who have been helping out around the community, some have been doing crafts and we have one woman who has been sewing face masks,” she said as examples.

The center will move from its current location in the near future, when construction is completed on a new senior center facility located at the Lawrence County Fairgrounds.

Funds have been secured from the Ohio legislature for this project and groundbreaking is set to begin this year.