By Greg Ellison

(Aug. 6, 2020) Forced to shutter senior centers in Berlin, Ocean City, Snow Hill and Pocomoke because of the coronavirus, the Worcester Commission on Aging adapted programs to continue providing essential services to elderly residents who frequented the locations.

Executive Director Rob Hart said the four senior centers in Worcester County were ordered closed by state officials because of the pandemic with no firm reopen date in sight.

“We’ve been trying to reach out to all members of our senior centers by phone just to check on them weekly,” he said.

The check-ins, in many instances with Ocean Pines residents, have also served to inquire if seniors are in need of food, medicine or household supplies.

“We made sure we got it to them,” he said. “We had either our Meals on Wheels people deliver it or we have a Community For Life group that delivered it to them.”

The unusual times have also caused the daily number of individuals assisted by Meals on Wheels to skyrocket.

“Meals On Wheels are up from about 75 to the peak of about 125,” he said. “It nearly doubled and we’re seeing an increase right now.”

Speaking on Monday, Hart said with emergency storm warnings in place preceding Tropical Storm Isaias, which made landfall in North Carolina later that night, the meal counts were further boosted.

“We delivered two days of meals and one emergency meal to everybody that we had on our roster [today] in case tomorrow we couldn’t get out to them,” he said.

Besides providing food, the program is helping to fill the activity void for members.

“We have YouTube videos for the seniors … and every time we create one, we send a link to members,” he said.

In many instances, the online content offers exercise routines to help elderly members maintain flexibility.

Other alternatives are provided for those without Internet access.

“We do telephone bingo for them to try and keep them involved,” he said.

Hart said despite the centers being closed, another alternative offering provides a reason for still visiting the site.

“We started a bookmobile where we’re actually at our senior centers,” he said.

The bookmobiles are are situated on site at senior centers, but outside of structures.

“We have a large bus that we can have two to three people in at a time and maintain social distancing,” he said. “It’s a bigger bus that we used for outings and, of course, we aren’t doing outings right now so we wanted to continue to use it.”

Besides meeting literary needs, the bookmobiles offer an opportunity for socializing.

“I’m sure that it’s more than just picking up a book,” he said. “It’s the idea that they get to talk to someone that they haven’t seen.”

Hart said the pandemic restrictions have thrown the Worcester Commission on Aging’s entire mission for a loop.

“Before all this happened, our job was to help get socialization to the seniors,” he said. “When this happened, we turned a whole 180 degrees to isolation.”

Shifting focus away from encouraging elderly members to interact has been a challenge.

“It’s been a very tough experience for us because we’re used to trying to get them out, until we had to stay please stay home don’t come out,” he said. “It’s kind of a weird turn.”

Hart said, for now, there are few answers to the deluge of daily phone calls inquiring about dates for reopening senior centers.

“We’re under mandate from the governor that we cannot open until the state of emergency ends,” he said. “We have not heard anything from anybody up above giving us any dates.”

Until further notice, senior centers and adult day care are closed, with Meals On Wheels remaining in operation at heightened capacity. To learn more about services provided by through the Worcester Commission on Aging call 410-632-1277.