New events set at Havre's senior center

In addition to the regular activities held every week at North Central Senior Center in Havre, a series of events is set for this month starting Thursday with a walk to local greenhouse Downtown Gardens at 12:45 p.m.

North Central Senior Center Activity Director Heather Williams said they will begin the short walk at the center and arrive at Downtown Gardens around 1 p.m., though people who have trouble walking are welcome to meet them there.

Winter said Downtown Gardens will be giving the seniors a class on successful flower cultivation and their best practices, and it will be a great opportunity for everyone to enjoy the nice weather.

But this isn’t the only event the Council has going on this month, as next Wednesday they will have music from ROC Band, a local country music group from Chinook.

ROC, Real Old Country, frequently plays at the Chinook Senior Center, Winter said, and while the Senior Center has plenty of music, they wanted to add a bit of variety.

The next day they will have their first Stepping On walk, where seniors will practice skills they’ve learned in previous Stepping On workshops to avoid falls.

Winter said they haven’t been able to do a walk since they began these workshops due to the icy conditions in Havre that finally left recently.

She said she’s glad they’ve been able to do these classes and this walk should help everyone practice and retain the information in those classes, which is important considering how devastating a fall can be.

“If it helps one person, it’s been a success,” she said.

She said the winter conditions caused quite a few falls and while it doesn’t look like any of them were too bad for the center’s regulars, a broken hip as a result of a fall can lead to a long and difficult decline in health for seniors.

This isn’t the only health-related event the center has set up this month. Local nurse Janice Holt RN in set to conduct a blood pressure clinic May 19, which will help seniors keep track of their health and help their doctors spot potential issue.

May 22, will be a foot care clinic offered by A Plus Health Care.

Winter said this will be especially helpful for seniors who have difficulties maintaining their nails, which become thicker and harder as time goes on, often causing or exacerbating mobility issues.

May 24, later that week, they will also have a presentation on pollinator species on the Hi-Line by Hill County Conservation District’s Emma Korntheuer, which Winter said she was particularly looking forward to.

She said the presentation will talk about local pollinator species and small changes people can make at their homes to help ensure their populations remain healthy, like leaving an old log in a yard for them to make into a habitat.

Winter said Korntheuer is extremely knowledgeable, having identified a new pollinator species in the area that hadn’t yet been discovered.

“She’s a real hotshot,” she said.

Winter said they were going to hold this presentation last month, but the seemingly endless winter depressed interest so they postponed it.

She said all of these events are geared toward seniors, but this presentation is one anyone, even children, would definitely get something out of, so she encouraged anyone interested to come.