The Cupertino Courier Photograph by Skye Dunlap Eileen Betz, Anne De Julio, Irene Palermo and Elsie Uggla enjoy a game of bridge on Thursday afternoon. Center reaches out to ethnically diverse retirees By Michelle Ku The changes in Cupertino's demographics have affected the entire community from businesses to the student population. And now, the Cupertino Senior Center is working toward meeting the needs of the growing ethnically diverse community. Since July, the center has held four meetings to address how the center can better serve the community's newly arrived seniors from other nations. To help seniors feel comfortable in the center, the Changing Demographics Committee wants to create programming to strengthen socialization without any language or cultural barriers. "We've tried very hard to find common denominators for people who may not have exactly the same languages," said Dale Compton, chair of the committee. As a starting point, the committee's first event will be a celebration of the Lunar New Year--more commonly known as Chinese New Year--in conjunction with the center's monthly movie event. This lunar new year falls on Feb. 16 and marks the beginning of the year of the rabbit. "One of the things we wanted to do was use an existing format the members of the senior center were familiar with," Compton said. The movie the group chose to show is Dim Sum--A Little Bit of Heart, a film made in the 1980s by Wayne Wang. Set in San Francisco, it tells the story of an Asian mother and daughter dealing with life in the United States. In selecting the film, it was important that the movie have ideas and issues that will naturally create discussion after the screening, senior center director Diane Snow said. Refreshments and a discussion led by Vivian Silva, a social worker with the center, will follow the movie. In promoting the event, the committee made a conscious decision to bill it as a Lunar New Year celebration rather than calling it Chinese New Year. "If you call it Lunar New Year, it involves more people and more countries than just saying Chinese New Year," Snow said. The committee is looking into the possibility of creating other programs to coincide with other annual events including the Cherry Blossom Festival and the summer music festival. "One of the things that we want to do in all of this is to portray the senior center as a friendly place in the community for anyone to come to in the senior age group regardless of their background, ethnic difference, language difference or anything else," Compton said. The event is from 2 to 5 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 9 at the Cupertino Senior Center, 21251 Stevens Creek Boulevard. Sign up at the desk or call the center at 777-3150. Free. [ Back to Contents Page | Cupertino Courier Home Page | Archives ] This article appeared in the Cupertino Courier, February 3, 1999. ©1999 Metro Publishing, Inc. All rights reserved.