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years ago, when Betty Dickstein, a retired executive
secretary and nearly native New Yorker (a Manhattan
resident for over 60 years), stopped in to see what
Goddard Riverside’s Senior
Center had to offer, she had no idea what she
was getting into.
“I was widowed, and I had more time on my hands,” she
said. “One day I just decided to walk down here. I live a
few blocks away. I began taking the Spanish class, and now I guess
I will study Spanish for the rest of my life.”
But discovering a life-long love of the romance language
was only the tip of the iceberg. Now her résumé
at the Senior Center reads like this: a Vice President
of the Advisory
Council; Chairperson of Food Committee; member
of Outreach, Public Issues, and Recognition Committees;
active in annual bazaar; participant in Spanish class
and Chorus; and founder of the Scrabble Group. She
eats lunch nearly every weekday, surrounded by friends,
in the Center’s dining room. Reflecting on how
she got in so deep, she chuckled and said, “Well,
one thing led to another.”
The Spanish class led to an exercise class which led to the chorus.
“I love to sing,” Betty said. “It’s fun.”
Any reservations about how she might fit in with the close-knit
chorus group melted away when they heard her sing. “Right
away I became a star,” she joked.
Members and staff at the Senior Center quickly zoomed in on Betty’s
enthusiasm and get-it-done attitude, and, in her
words, “catapulted” her onto the Advisory
Council, which in turn won her more leadership roles.
The Director of Senior Services, Erika
Teutsch, said, “Betty is always around
to help with whatever. She’ll do the nitty-gritty
and take on responsibility.”
As a member of the
Outreach Committee, Betty works to make sure that
hospitalized or homebound members of the Senior Center
get the help they need. The committee phones members
who are missed at the center and notifies a staff
social worker about any needed follow-up. On the Recognition
Committee, she helps coordinate the acknowledgment
of outstanding staff and members with plaques and
gifts presented at the membership meetings. She has
traveled to city hall and Albany to lobby for health
benefits for older adults and other legislation as
a member of the Public Issues Committee. With her
many roles at the Senior Center, the most palpably
important may be chairing the Food Committee, for
it is on Betty’s shoulders to present the members’
likes and dislikes to the kitchen and to negotiate
for special holiday items with the chef.
At 86, Betty is not showing signs of slowing down.
Her roster of responsibilities aside, the Senior
Center is really about one thing for her. “It’s
the connections you make with people – the
sociability,” she said. “To me the most
important thing is to be part of the Goddard Riverside
community.”
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