Beth Paris Sings Songs of Old and Young

If Beth Paris has her way as Darien’s new Director of Senior Services, the town’s over-60 population will be growing new brain cells at a dizzying rate.

She’s a believer in the evolving science that holds that new neural connections can be stimulated by challenging mental activity and meaningful social interaction, even into old age.

"I know that every day I will make a mistake, and every day I will learn," she says. "Both of those things jazz me."

That’s why, during her two-month tenure to date, whenever she’s been approached with ideas for new programs, her reply has been an emphatic: "Yes!"

This vivacious, gracious and energetic woman can wax poetic about her vision for the Senior Activites Center (SAC) in her office at 30 Edgerton Road. She leads tours of the Center with utmost pride, showing off the bright and sunny rooms of the former Hollow Tree Hill Elementary School, where every room is appointed to bring out creativity and human camaraderie.

Darien has an estimated population of 3,000 residents over the age of 60, the State’s threshold for "senior" status, Paris said, noting that she dislikes the term. (Don’t be surprised if the "Senior Activities Center" gets a new name under her regime.)

To date, 300 residents, or ten percent of those Darienites 60 years and older, have chosen to be members of the Center. Membership is free; all that’s required is filling out a short form.

Paris hopes to increase membership, but she is not making any immediate plans to focus on recruitment. She’s more interested in tapping into the pulse of the community to get a feel for how things are done, what is wanted and what is needed here in Darien.

Paris, a Fairfield resident, previously worked for the town of Stratford for 23 years in senior care; she came to Darien in August.

What she has realized right away is that Darien’s elders have strikingly rich and varied backgrounds.

She was delighted to discover a former professional dancer in her 80s giving a weekly ballet class at the center and two retired computer professionals rebuilding computers rejected by the public schools. Rose Warren, 88, teaches stained glass making. When Paris sat in on a class on "current events," the academic quality of the discussion amazed her, she said. The eldest senior member turned 99 in August and is a regular.

"What’s a good way to stimulate your brain?" she asked rhetorically. "Learn a foreign language."

And so the center offers instruction in Italian, Spanish and French, along with dozens of programs to tap into talents both known and unknown. An incomplete rundown would include yoga, flower arrangement, knitting, quilting, woodworking, painting in oil, acrylic and watercolors, poetry, creative writing, pool, table tennis, Tai Chi, low-impact exercise and jazzercise.

There’s even a class in stonecutting. Paris marvels as she inspects a stone polar bear, a work-in-progress hand-chiseled out of a block of white stone assuming more and more character as his untutored creator refines his chisel strikes.

Special events are scheduled frequently. Some classes are free; for others there is a four-dollar fee.

Paris plunges full-heartedly into her job. She says she is blessed to have it because she loves the work. She lights up as she shares a story of introducing initially shy members to karaoke the other day. She belted out a song in her church choral-trained voice, and soon, she said, seniors were fighting over the microphone to have their chance.

The center is abuzz with morning activities, which halt at noon: lunchtime. Master chef Tom Mirto prepares satisfying four-dollar meals for as many as 100 at a time, although the average number is in the 20s. The food is fabulous, Paris says, recalling his recent Spanish chicken stew bursting with flavors of brine-y olives and vineyard peppers.

Mirto cooks without salt, respecting the dietary restrictions of members. (Salt and pepper are available at each table for those who want them.) His creations are memorable, even on a limited budget. Desserts are one dollar, and the meals are sufficiently sustaining that lunch-goers can dine lightly in the evening, Paris added.

Paris had her office painted on her arrival and is formulating plans to update the decor. She believes the rectangular, barracks-like layout of tables in the dining hall is hardly becoming of the place and is hopeful a benefactor will come along to replace them with conversation-friendly round tables, so the space will be more like a cafe.

However, the arrangement worked well recently, when a class from the nearby Middlesex Middle School visited for a round of bingo and brownies. Young were integrated with old and became fast, talkative buddies.

Under the wing of the Parks & Recreation Department, the SAC comes up with its own budget; that’s just one of Paris’s many tasks. She also publishes a monthly newsletter. In an effort to go green, those members with access to email will soon receive those SAC updates electronically.

Once the center’s four computers are wired to the Internet, Paris said she will program them all with "Brain Gym" to exercise and tweak users’ minds to use more than that 25 percent of the brain most of us use, most of the time.

"If you are building neurons through creative tasks you have never done before, you’ll be building residual memory that will well serve you should you suffer a right cerebral hemorrhage," Paris said.

In addition to neural connections, Paris is hoping to spark connections between the young and the old and the in-between.

Most recently, a journalism class from Norwalk Community College interviewed several dozen members in an oral history project. Although they planned to complete their work in only one afternoon most returned many times over. The experience was pleasurable for all involved, Paris said.

One 93-year-old member said he hadn’t realized his life story was so compelling until he really started talking about it, and someone was interested enough to listen. The oral histories will be compiled in books, which the authors will later present to the speakers and to the Darien Historical Society for its research library.

Paris is also looking to establish more connections between the center and the community.

The mother of a 14-year-old daughter, Paris is incubating an idea about melding the community’s young girls with its female elders.

Her deepest, fondest memories are those of times spent with her own maternal grandmother; the two were a mutual-admiration society, she said. Paris grew up comfortable around her grandmother’s friends, and when her grandmother was dying from brain cancer, Paris, 17 at the time, rode her bike from her home in Bridgeport to tend to her in Fairfield.

This is mind, Paris would like to see a one-on-one program whereby an elder accomplished woman in the community would introduce herself to a young Darien girl through a photograph of herself at the same age; the conversation would start there, she said.

"I am sure the young lady would soon look at her with new eyes," Paris said of the program. "We should honor each other.”

Many things are changing at the Senior Center but Paris says one will remain untouched: a sign on the air conditioner in Paris’ office.

It reads: "There are songs yet to be sung by the old and the young.”

"I agree with that," says Paris.