The mission of the Cohoes Multi-Service Senior Citizens Center, Inc. is to promote the dignity of older adults living in the community; and to provide the programs and services needed to support their living healthy and productive lives.

Executive Director’s Message

Happy New Year. I hope these first few days have brought you many gifts. It is the time of resolutions and things to look forward to. For some people, it is just the hope that tomorrow will be as good as or a little bit better than today. For others, it is the hope of better health, reuniting with family, or having enough money. People have larger hopes for a better world for kids, grandchildren, or even themselves.

This is my wish for all of you in the coming year. I wish that you all have hope. The dictionary defines hope as a belief in a positive outcome related to events and circumstances in one’s life. But, hope is one of the things that keeps us moving forward when times are difficult. In Christian based theology, hope was a gift from God. In ancient Greek mythology, hope was actually one of the evils that came from Pandora’s box be­cause it was believed to prolong torment. The point, it’s all about per­spective. I tend to buy into both models. I think hope is both a gift from the supreme spirit as well as something that causes us to prolong holding onto something or someone that we should let go of.

So why prattle on about hope? I think we are going to need it. I think our sense of community has dwindled. I believe we spend so much time trying to understand how to accommodate the modern forms of family that we focus on the structure as opposed to the content. It’s not whether there is a Mom and Dad or one or the other or maybe two of each, it’s about the togetherness and the values they impart to each other.

As people age and sometimes traditional family and friends pass on or become too distant to see, it becomes necessary to reinvent family. It becomes more important to just be surrounded by people who care about each other. Here at the Senior Center, I have see that truth become a reality over and over again.

That’s the importance of bringing people together. It’s not just about a meal or a wellness class. It’s about the bond of community and relationship.

I think the hope for a sense of community and relationship is part of the answer to making a better life now and in the coming year.

Be well,

Keith Hornbrook Executive Director

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Cohoes Multi-Service Senior Citizen Center, Inc.