By Laura Bilson
For HDMedia
More than 25 seniors, many dressed in bright colors and wide-brimmed hats, attended the East End Resource Center’s annual Easter luncheon Thursday in Charleston.
This year’s theme was “Pretty in Pastels.” In addition to eating lunch and socializing, seniors assembled Easter baskets full of candy and eggs they dyed by hand. These would later be delivered to friends and neighbors unable to attend the center’s activities.
East End Resource Center Coordinator Karen Williams, dressed in a pink blazer with a matching pink wide-brimmed hat, greeted seniors and helped pass out Easter baskets, candy and egg-dyeing supplies.
Williams said this is their first year making baskets, and the seniors will be distributing them to “whomever they feel needs one.”
She named affordability and isolation as two main obstacles facing seniors that the center tries to counteract.
“What we’re trying to do right now is to create an outreach program, because so many times seniors will not come out of their house, and so that’s why we’re making the baskets,” Williams said.
Charleston resident Martha Ross has attended the center for three years and sees their cohort as family. She wore a pink hat she bought on Temu and a blue floral dress. She chatted with fellow seniors as they passed eggs and cups of dye between each other, slowly filling their baskets.
“Doesn’t matter if we’re 1 or 99, we’re still kids,” Ross said. “We got it all today; we’re having the best time.”
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