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[fusion_dropcap boxed=”yes” boxed_radius=”” class=”” id=”” color=”” text_color=””]T[/fusion_dropcap]he Center at Belvedere, a Charlottesville, Virginia senior center was right on the brink of opening the doors to its brand new facility when the COVID-19 outbreak hit effectively padlocking those doors shut.
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You can watch the video interview above with or without subtitles, or read this transcript (edited for clarity and flow):
CHUCK: (00:01):
Hello, I’m Chuck Moran. I’m the founder of Online Video Mastery™, and I am here to introduce the next in our series of interesting people who are doing interesting things with Zoom. I’m very happy today to be joined by Carolyn Merrick. Carolyn and I have known each other for several decades, at least three. Caroline is a pro at Zoom and that’s why I’ve got her on here. She is a program coordinator at a senior type center; they actually provide services to people who are “50 and better” as they say. And, it’s called The Senior Center or The Center at Belvedere … still getting used to the new name. So Carolyn, welcome to the broadcast. And I would like you to go ahead and tell us a little bit about yourself and your position, and about The Center, so take it away.
CAROLYN (00:53):
Great. Thanks Chuck. It’s really nice to see you and, you look great, even though it’s been 30 years plus since we met. I’m sure you’re using that Zoom touch up appearance to make those subtle little crevasses around your lips, et cetera. Yeah. So anyway, thanks again for having me and I wanted to share with you all how we use Zoom here at The Center. I’m just going to show a few slides and it may take me a couple of clicks. So bear with me. So this is our logo. The Center … we’ve been around since 1960, and as Chuck was saying, we used to be called the Senior Center, but we’ve rebranded ourselves. We’ve moved into a beautiful new building, which I’ll show you in a moment. And our mission is to positively impact our community by creating opportunities for healthy aging, for folks 50 and older, or better, as Chuck said.
CAROLYN (01:48):
And we want people to connect with each other for social support and for emotional wellness, but a lot of different dimensions of wellness. So as you can see from this slide, we look at emotional, environmental, intellectual, physical, vocational, spiritual, social dimensions of wellness, and that that’s part of our mission and we do that for our community. So as Chuck said, we have this wonderful new building here at Belvedere, which is one of the reasons we changed our name. We moved here in March and we intended to just be closed for three weeks and then reopen and have this grand gala, and have a great time. But we didn’t open again until June due to COVID. It really hit us. And as you can imagine, a brand new building with brand new bills, we were expecting a lot more folks to join, and it was not the case.
CAROLYN (02:44):
There were even issues with folks who were already members not renewing their memberships, which is about 40% of the monies we rely on. The rest comes from philanthropy. So we have a small, but a very dedicated team. And we put our heads and hearts together to do what we could to fulfill our mission during the time of COVID. And Zoom really was one of the hugest most important things that we did. So I said, “Hey, there’s this online program, let’s try it.” And we would do that. And at first it just started with meetings because of course we were all working from home, trying to figure out how we can help serve our seniors, continue our mission and stay afloat, quite frankly. So we started off with Zoom Basic, which I think everybody probably knows gives you that 40 minute cutoff. And then that was changed very quickly … it was not enough for us.
CAROLYN (03:43):
So we went to Zoom Basic, and then we went to Zoom Pro like, boom, boom, boom. We didn’t know what to present to people. How do use this? How many of our seniors were even going to use Zoom? We just didn’t know, but we thought we’d try anyway. And I can remember one of the first meetings that we had. We said, well, how, what kind of program could we do? And I said, “Well, how about we just do ‘how are you doing?'” And give them the Zoom link and see who shows up. We probably had between 10 and 20 folks. And I will never forget that meeting it, gratified us all to see members. And you could see somebody on top … “Mary, how are you?” “Oh, I’m fine. Look at your hair.” “Yes. I know. It’s horrible.” Blah, blah, blah. People were socializing immediately. So happy to have that connection.
CHUCK (04:34):
Yeah. Wow. That’s real. That must have been gratifying. How, how did they learn that you were using Zoom? Were you using a newsletter for that?
CAROLYN (04:43):
Yeah, so great question. We have an electronic newsletter and we have a very fine marketing department and they do a great job. We have a weekly e-newsletter that goes out to probably 6,000 folks and yes, and it’s opened anywhere between two and 3,000 people weekly.
CHUCK (05:04):
What an open rate. Wow.
CAROLYN (05:05):
It is an amazing open rate. And what’s cool, too, Chuck, was there were folks that have moved away. Members, prior members who had moved away, who opened that up and joined us on that day as well, because they could now … from Florida, from wherever … connect with us. Wow. Was really great. So we started that in April. And what you see on this slide as you can see, we had no onsite things happening and these numbers are the number of people who Zoomed or came on site if you start at June. Okay. So, 951 was below what obviously we used to do. It was a 76% decrease over our numbers in 2019, but still that means 24% of folks were being reached during that first month. That’s amazing. And then if you look down at September, which wasn’t that long ago, when we looked at the numbers from 2019 and compared them to 2020, we actually had a 5% increase over the numbers of folks who joined us for activities just on site in 2019.
CHUCK (06:17):
Wow. So you’re really moving to, at that point, fully into a hybrid model. So back in April, you had nobody on site, nobody coming into the building by September, you had 1,686 people coming into the building. Your Zoom population though, had moved from just under a thousand to 1,740 folks. So if you add the two of those together, it’s more than you might’ve expected to be there in person. Had there not been COVID.
CAROLYN (06:50):
That’s exactly right. That’s exactly right. And I want to say too, these are not individuals. It wasn’t like 1,740 individuals. Some of them have double dipped or tripled that they’ve come to two or three or four different sessions. And that’s the same number we compared in 2019. So it was people who, you know, what we call duplicates.
CHUCK (07:13):
Wow. That’s pretty impressive.
CAROLYN (07:16):
Very impressive. And I must say it really helps with feeling like we’re really doing our mission. Of course, there’s lots of groups that aren’t meeting right now … band isn’t meeting. They were meeting outside for a little while when the weather was nice, but they can’t now. Any card games. So there’s about 25 to 30% of our programming regularly scheduled programming that we just can’t do right now. We’ve come up with some new programs and programming and we’ve also really beefed up our fitness. So here’s a photo of, one of our fitness rooms along with Alex Waltrip, who is our wonderful fitness coordinator and the Zoom programs that we run now. 50 to 55% of those are fitness, health and recreation, which is really important, especially when you’re isolated in your home … cold weather, you don’t feel like coming out. Which brings up another point. There are folks who probably, we will always do Zoom after this, so we never used it, but we will always use it because we have hybrid classes in particular with fitness and health. So some folks like to come in, but there’s a number … you can’t have too many. And then some folks really don’t want to like get a shower and get dressed and come. They just want to get up in the morning and do their chair yoga or their primetime fitness at home.
CHUCK (08:34):
That’s really cool. Yeah. That hybrid model is really catching on. We’ve got a member of our team named Geraldine Ree and Geraldine has a blog post on our blog about the advent of hybrid meetings. Because I think a couple of things are going on. One is that people, you know, we are pack animals … that’s in our DNA and we need to socialize. We need to be back around other people. So people want to gather as soon as it’s safe. But then on the other hand, Zoom is an overlay that allows more people in, like you’re saying … if they’re not feeling up to it that day that, you know, arthritis or it’s cold out, then they can participate in the same session online. So that, that that’s really exciting, but that’s a very impressive number … that 50 to 55% are around fitness, health and recreation.
CAROLYN (09:29):
Well, our new building has just amazing facilities and we have so many different programs. Like I said, yoga, Zumba line dancing, regular fitness balance and stabilization, just lots of stuff. So the number we expected to increase in pre COVID time because we also have a full, fully equipped gym. If you see, if you look in this picture behind Alex, you can actually see a member there working out in our fully equipped gym and thanks to ACAC by the way … they donated all of that equipment.
CAROLYN (10:04):
Lots of wonderful collaboration. So, and the other amount of Zoom programming, we do lectures. Some people do games. I’ll share with you one of my favorite games, the bingo and trivia game at the end of this. We have a robust Spanish-speaking program. Helen Ida, who is a volunteer and a member here, just gives up her time. And she has three different classes, beginning, intermediate, and advanced Spanish, which she taught in person. And it was always very popular once she learned how to do Zoom. She said, “I’ll take it online.” And there’s a waiting list.
CHUCK (10:41):
Wow. That’s amazing. Do you make recordings and post them to a YouTube channel or, or do you need to be there live when to see Helen?
CAROLYN (10:51):
That’s a great question. No, you need to be there live when she’s teaching, but we do record other programming, which I’ll also show you a slide. So you can see where that is. Yeah. Cool. Art online, online watercolor classes, watercolor, color pencils, drawing. Those have been very successful and artists will come to us and say, I’d like to do that. They have two screens, they have one on their art. People love it and it sells itself. That’s awesome. And then a lot of different special events. And here’s one statistic I’d love to tell you about: we started a speaker series on race and racism, diversity and inclusivity. So in 2019 we had five sessions. We had five sessions and we had anywhere from 38 to 60 people showing up for those live sessions, which was a really good turnout. But this year we had our second speaker series on the same topics. And we had anywhere from 77 to 122 participants on. For each presentation. So yes. And as you said, do we record? We recorded those as well. And some of those recordings have been viewed over two to 300 times. So, or I don’t know how you say it. Two to 300 hits. So other people .. not just the folks who were there are able to see that as well. So again, another bonus from Zoom that we weren’t anticipating … it’s fantastic.
CAROLYN (12:22):
Let’s see some of the quotes here … just some nice things that people have said. This is a great thing that we didn’t expect. The Martha Jefferson house here in town where folks live, they tune in to a lot of our special events. They wouldn’t be able to come, but now they can. So they sent us a note saying that they love partnering with us. We’re thrilled by the many virtual opportunities being offered. So that’s a really great thing. Again, we just, we can reach more people. And, there’s another lady here who talks about living alone. And she said she really enjoys and needs that interaction she gets at The Center. We did a participant survey feedback in July, kind of a, “how are we doing” thing? And this was one of the comments we got. That’s really cool. And then here “online yoga, I don’t know what I’d do without it, since I can’t leave my apartment again.” You think about it. This is one of the most vulnerable populations for COVID. So while we do have folks who are coming in, and of course we have a very rigorous program … we’re following the governor’s mandates rigorously and making sure everybody wears masks and understands and gets checked at the door, but not everybody is willing to do that. And we totally understand and respect that.
CHUCK (13:43):
Yeah. We’re at the point that we’re recording this, the CDC, The Centers for Disease .. and what is it? Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, I think is their full name. But anyway, they’ve just come out with more, rigorous recommendations for people in this age category, which … everybody’s known that when they go to the grocery store, they need to mask up. But they’re actually saying to wear a face shield now, in addition, during this early winter time. So yeah, it’s really scary. So, so Zoom coupled with your amazing programming really helps with that social isolation.
CAROLYN (14:26):
Yes, definitely. We know that there are people we cannot reach. And for that we do community outreach phone calls. We do the best we can. We have some members we know that aren’t Zoom savvy and don’t want to be, but we do our best to reach as many people as we can. And like I said, the silver lining is we’re reaching way more people than we used to before.
CHUCK (14:48):
That’s really interesting. Just two quick question about the geography you’re reaching. I’ve conducted a number of these interviews and one thing that you’ve already said, it was that Zoom’s never going to go away. Another thing I hear is that our geographic reach for especially, you know, a bricks and mortar facility like The Center, used to just be the city and the surrounding county and maybe a couple of counties outside of that, but now it’s literally global. So what is your experience been around that?
CAROLYN (15:21):
Well, so just to give a little bit of history to flesh that out, I started in February fully intending to fill up the rooms in our beautiful building with programming. And of course it all went to pot. So anybody who I knew that had a talent, I called them, I emailed them and said, “would you do a presentation?” And so I called people in California, in Colorado, Tennessee, Florida, Rome. So we’ve had presenters from literally all over the world. We could never have done that before. And we’ve had some amazing presentations … amazing, well attended and fun. It also can be a marketing tool for that person as well to have the recording. So we have definitely seen an expansion. We have one member, like I said, who moved away, but is now partaking of our Zoom classes. And here’s just an example of our weekly schedule for the week of December. And you can see all the orange ones are online and the blue ones are here and that’s just the morning for some days. So it’s even longer. I just couldn’t fit it on the screen. So on those online programs, you can literally be anywhere. And a lot of our online programs are free and open to the public. Some of the, exercise ones you need to pay for, but a lot of them are, are free.
CHUCK (16:52):
That’s really cool.
CAROLYN (16:56):
Here’s one of our pages on our YouTube page and you can see the variety of presentations that we do. And one of the ones that was recent was Mark and Cynthia Lorenzoni who run the Ragged Mountain Running Shop here in Charlottesville … great pillars of the community. They give back a lot. They had just done this coast to coast, England walk, and they couldn’t wait to show everybody their slides and everything. And then COVID hit, and Peter Thompson, our director said, well, why don’t you put it online? You know, show it there. So that’s what they did. 100, 122 people, tuned in for this one-and-a-half-hour presentation, which was recorded. And I don’t know if you can see this, but it’s already had almost 400 views just from the last three weeks.
CHUCK (17:46):
That is really amazing. Yeah. So for people who are reading the transcript, I’m looking at a screen which anyone can go look at, apparently it just, by going to YouTube and typing in The Center at Belvedere – B E L B E D E R E – in Charlottesville, and it’ll bring up all of these awesome presentations. So some of the things that I’m seeing here are everything from the Lorenzonis’ walk across England to scarf tying magic, parts one and two, the evolution and revolution of women’s fashion from 1850 to 1970, the epidemic of bad storytelling. I think I’m going to need to watch that one, computer maintenance and, that one about care and fostering a SPCA pet. So you’ve really covered the waterfront with these videos. So this is yet another dimension ,,, if you’re at home and kind of getting tired of Netflix or, you know, the daily news, this is a place to go and consume some really great new information.
CAROLYN (18:44):
I should say too, Chuck, that some of these presentations appeal to younger people as well. So for example, I actually did one on the wreck-diving in the Graveyard of the Atlantic. I’m a scuba diver. And my friend said, I’m going to send that to my sister who homeschools her kids because there was history, there was biology. So that’s kind of interesting, too, that we can have other folks tune in, even though we’re here for folks 50 and better, we’re happy to have other people be interested.
CHUCK (19:14):
Yeah, that’s really cool. And it also, from a marketing perspective, puts people into a train, if you will, to introduce them into what The Center’s all about so they can recommend it to other seniors and possibly join when they become one of themselves. Exactly. Cool.
CAROLYN (19:35):
I’m going to stop sharing my slides here.
CHUCK (19:37):
Okay. So that is really fascinating. So, I tuned into one of your online activities, the other day, and I found it super fascinating. So I’d love it if you could talk a little bit about your bingo / trivia activity.
CAROLYN (19:57):
Absolutely. Yeah. So one of the things that I’m doing is creating new programming. Bingo has been around for a long time. So I’m not claiming I’m the bingo inventor, but we thought, well, that one would go online pretty well. And there are a few companies online, I think it’s My Free Bingo Cards, where it’s very easy to set it up, call the game online, have people get cards delivered to them. They can either print them out, or if they’re savvy enough, they can do their cards online. And so we decided to do that and couple it with trivia. And the way I look at Zoom is … what can it give me? There’s a polling feature in Zoom. I don’t know if everybody’s familiar with that. I suspect it’s probably more for surveys, and we do use that in that capacity as well.
CAROLYN (20:51):
But I thought, well, wouldn’t it be fun to come up with trivia questions loaded in the polls. Then we would choose a person to answer it, but then everybody else could have a say in it. So that’s what we did. We use that and also a free program called Wheel Decide. So I put everybody’s name on the wheel and if you’d like, I’ll show you how that works. Okay. A couple more clicks again. Here we go. Can you see the wheel?
CHUCK (21:22):
It’s coming up? Yep. I can see it.
CAROLYN (21:24):
Okay. So we just click on the wheel and I put everybody’s names on there. Oh. And look, it’s selected me. Right. So I have to answer three trivia questions.
CHUCK (21:39):
Okay. And I actually have access to them. So let’s see how you do Carolyn.
CAROLYN (21:45):
The pressure’s on here!
CHUCK (21:46):
And just for people who are curious about this, you can set these poll questions up on your Zoom.com account. Once you’ve got a paid account or you can actually set them up on the fly, but of course it makes more sense to do it ahead of time. So I’m going to launch the poll now.
CAROLYN (22:06):
All right. Do you want to read it to me, Chuck?
CHUCK (22:08):
The question is “what does karaoke mean in Japanese?” First choice is “showers,” the second choice is “empty orchestra.” That sounds like a good possibility. “Drunk singer,” which I think those of us who have experienced karaoke in a certain environment could relate to, and “stop please.” So you are our winner in terms of answering the question, so why don’t you go ahead and vote for your favorite?
CAROLYN (22:37):
Okay. Let’s see. Now just so you know, everybody on the Zoom can vote for this, so I’m gonna vote. And I clicked “submit my vote.”
CHUCK (22:47):
Yeah. We can see that live, that you voted for “empty orchestra.” So I’m going to end the poll and let’s say that 20 people have logged in and put in their vote. So now I’m going to share the results.
CAROLYN (23:01):
Oh. So this poll tells me that that’s what I did, but with other folks it’ll be everybody’s answers there. That’s really cool. And since I’m the person, I get to choose, so I could say, well, I’m going to go with “drunk singer.” I’m going to go with whatever. Right. But I’m going to go with my answer, “empty orchestra.” That’s really great. Is that correct? Yes? Okay, I win a prize.
CHUCK (23:26):
Yes you do. And what kind of prizes do you give away to the winners ?
CAROLYN (23:31):
Anything! Sometimes people say I have this cloisonné butterfly that I never use. Could I donate that? So a lot of the prizes come from our players. It’s not really about wow, I won this Amana freezer. It’s just that there’s so much fun …attaching a little prize. One of the most popular prizes we have is a $5 gift certificate to Greenberry’s that we have here in The Center. We have a Greenberry’s and people always like that one.
CHUCK (23:59):
Greenberry’s is a local coffee shop that everybody here in Charlottesville is extremely familiar with … no doubt. So, that’s really cool.
CAROLYN (24:08):
It’s a lot of fun. Everybody has fun. And then when I say, “do you want me to reschedule it again?” Yes, yes. I said, well, we’re coming close to the holiday season. They said, “we’ll come on. What else are we going to do?” So I already have 20 people signed up for next week.
CHUCK (24:25):
That’s really great. Excellent. That’s really cool. So let’s sum up with any last comments you’ve got. One thing I’d just like to draw a red line underneath would be the benefits to The Center and especially the benefits to the participants. So what would you say is one key benefit to The Center … or more, and the same thing for participants in the community?
CAROLYN (24:50):
Well, I will say that Zoom has played a major role in enabling us to stay open and continue serving our mission and our folks in our community. And as we’ve talked about even further out, we’ve expanded our community. We’ve been able to stay open. Of course we had to – like everyone – make some budget, cuts, some serious budget cuts, thanks to our great board. We’ve been able to stay open and stay afloat. And we’ve gotten some wonderful donations during this time. So we thank Zoom tremendously for being able to start us in a new direction, because that’s what everybody had to do. I’m not a fan of the word “pivot,” but that’s exactly what we had to do. And we pivoted and people say, “what’s the new normal,” whatever that’s going to look like for us. It’s going to be an expanded program where we have online, in-house, and we’re working on getting those hybrids smoother in some areas, too. You had a second part.
CHUCK (25:52):
What it means to the participants. Basically, you had this beautiful building, and you had very unfortunate event with COVID landing, just as you’re about to open your doors. But if I were a participant and I was all psyched about coming into the new building or the old building, I suddenly can’t go. So now with your online program and of course, you are moving to a hybrid model now, but what has Zoom allowed me to do as a participant?
CAROLYN (26:24):
I’ll tell a little story that hopefully elucidates that. One time, there was a woman who wanted to sign up for online. I don’t remember if it was watercolor … some kind of art class. And so she signed up … and the difference, the transformation, she was so happy! And I was happy that we were able to provide her with something she could do for that hour and a half, but also all throughout her week, that was special and meaningful to her and creative.
CAROLYN (26:53):
Let’s not forget how much creativity can infuse us with gratitude, right. So there’s been a lot of gratitude that I see and hear from folks because they can participate, even if it’s in the chat and they ask a question there. Or, you know, we’re used to seeing people having issues with Zoom but it’s all good. We all are in it together. We don’t expect to be perfect, but there’s something beautiful in that imperfection as well. That was one example, but I know that a lot of people – and you saw some of those quotes – it’s giving them some of the things that are really important to them. I know I’d love to give you a hug, Chuck. I can’t right now. Virtual hugs aren’t the same, but I know I feel a connection to you right now.
CAROLYN (27:50):
And, and so that was surprising to me … that we could do that so easily online. Some things lend themselves better than others to do that. But I think that’s something that our members are very appreciative of. And I will say, I am so chuffed, so proud. So – I don’t know what the word is – how many people of this age group have ponied up and called their computer whiz son or whatever, or just figured it out on their own. And that’s a testament to Zoom too, that it’s not so difficult that even folks who weren’t born with a cell phone in their hand can do it.
CHUCK (28:32):
That’s awesome, Carolyn. And I have to say that I’m really looking forward to the time when we’re vaccinated and we can actually do real hugs in person, but this is way better than nothing. This is way better than just having a chat on the phone or send texts back and forth. So we really appreciate you dropping in today to fill us in on what’s going on with you and with The Center. So how can folks learn more about what The Center’s all about? What’s the best place? The website, for instance?
CAROLYN (28:57):
Thecentercville.org. That’s cville – C V I L L E – short for Charlottesville. You can find us there or at The Center at Belvedere in town. You can also email me. My first name is Carolyn – carolyn@thecentercville.org, or you can just come and drop in and take a self tour if you’re comfortable with that.
CHUCK (29:26):
Cool. Sounds great.
CAROLYN (29:29):
And I will say one more thing. I’m happy to talk to other senior center folks. Collaborating is really wonderful and important, and if we’re doing anything we can share with you, that will benefit you all the better and vice versa.
CHUCK (29:42):
That’s awesome. I was just going to bring that very thing up. Because one of the points of this series is that we’re trying to work with folks and do interviews with folks who are doing really cool things on Zoom, but also so that that information can inform and benefit organizations that are in a similar situation. And what’s beautiful about The Center and what you’re doing, Carolyn, is that it’s not just for senior centers … this would benefit all kinds of organizations. So I can see a lot of mappable tactics and strategies that you’re doing, that would work for other folks. So thank you very much. All right. Good to see you, Carolyn. Take care!
CAROLYN (30:25):
Thank you, Chuck. Bye-bye.
Please feel free to comment below with any questions and we’ll pass along answers from Carolyn.
Please visit The Center at Belvedere to learn more, or send an email to Carolyn at carolyn@thecentercville.org.
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