Signal Tribune Newspaper

By Steven Piper
Editorial Intern

On Friday mornings while shoppers are busy browsing clothing racks in the Lakewood Center’s Macy’s, meditation teacher Shoshanah Siegel is busy holding class in the lower level of the department store in one of OASIS’s classrooms.
OASIS is a national organization which is, according to its website, “dedicated to enriching the lives of adults age 50 and older.” The center offers classes with subjects including: health and exercise, arts and humanities, modern living, computers and traveling.
More recently, the organization is offering a new program called Active Generations, which will link volunteers with youths in grades 3 to 5 and show them “the importance of physical activity and a healthy diet.”
By the end of the program, “they will know what a healthy snack is, and it is not a bag of potato chips,” said Kit Katz, executive director.
In the program, the Active Generations volunteers, who can be 40 years or older instead of the standard 50-year minimum, will go to after-school locations to coordinate games, prepare snacks and educate the youth about a healthy diet.
According to an Active Generation’s brochure, “Over the past three decades, obesity rates in the U.S. have more than tripled among those ages 6–11.” As a result, the extra pounds lead to increasing incidents of heart disease, diabetes, strokes and cancer.
“Hopefully the kids will then be able to educate their families too,” said Jane Fallon, intergenerational program consultant.
Fallon said the program, which is set to begin mid-October, will be one day a week for one hour after school during an eight-week period. She is hoping for 20 children at each site.
“It is a new program, but it is in three other cities,” Fallon said. “We would like at least 12 kids to start.”
Active Generations was tested in Pittsburgh and San Antonio and will be expanding to St. Louis, Albany, Los Angeles and San Diego within the first year. Other cities slated to receive the program are Syracuse, Indianapolis and Denver.
Active Generations has been made available to the center due to the support of a $313,000 grant from the WellPoint Foundation, a healthcare company.
It is free to join OASIS, but the courses to come with a price, including a one-time $5 fee per trimester for each course.
“We want people to know we are here for them and that our classes are affordably priced,” Katz said.

MORE INFORMATION
www.oasisnet.org/lakewood
(562) 601-5010.