COA meeting Wednesday May 13, 2026
The meeting was called to order by Rachel at 3:02pm
Attendees: members Rachel, Diane, and Kelle
General Business: A motion was made and seconded to approve the meeting minutes of April 8, 2026.
 Third Thursday Coffee Morning April: Happy hour at Rowe camp from 4-6 and Henry Dandeneau lectured about deer. Chips/dip, cheese and crackers, N/A beer, and seltzers, sparkling N/A wine, vegi platter, fruit salad, and finger desserts were provided. Very good feedback, about 20 people attended. Only slightly negative feedback was that perhaps the lecture was slightly too long (about 1 hour 30 min). COA discussed having other events at the Rowe Camp because they have been great hosts and the atmosphere was very positive and welcoming.
Scheduled Future Activities:
Foot Clinics: Continue to go well- will continue this program with a $20 voluntary co-pay for those who can afford it. Rachel continues to make the appts for the clinics. Footcare by Nurses is currently training a new nurse who might be the one in charge of the June clinic. 
Walking Club - to continue indefinitely as long as weather permits. Only about 3-4 members continuing weekly. 1-1.5 Hour long from 10am-1130am. Continue to be advertised in Goal Post. Walkers have signed liability release forms. Walking club was offered as a free activity to the Heath COA
Bowling club- COA members passed a vote to allocate $1,500 from the budget to subsidize bowling for residents in the fall/winter/spring. Bowling is believed to finish at the end of May. Donna will check in about how much money is left for the bowlers to use. Bowling was offered as a paid activity to the Heath COA.
Drop-in Coffee/Puzzle Hour: Will be every day the town hall is open. Donna and Rachel periodically check the area and clean up and buy half and half for fridge. Folks have come in sporadically to work on puzzle and get a coffee. 
Exercise Class with Deb and Rachel: Started Monday, April 6th and run all Mondays in April and May except holidays. From 1130-1230 and will incorporate cardio drumming, weights, stretching, yoga, finger yoga. Utilization of TV programming/classes. NO sign ups required. Will pay Deb $25/hour. First class was a success with 7 residents attending, following classes between 4-6 attendees. Rachel will ask Donna to pay Deb the $150 that is owed for her services.   
Third Thursday Coffee Morning May: May 21st 10-12 at Town Hall- Olive Oil tasting with Kelle. Kelle has all items prepared for event. She will do a short talk and a blind tasting. Rachel will get sparkling water to help cleanse pallet in between olive oil tasting and a finger dessert for residents to share.   
AARP Talk June 11th at 1030-noon- ‘making sense of caregiver costs’ talk- Rachel to confirm again closer to time. Rachel and Donna to bring food items. 

Third Thursday Coffee Morning June: Cancelled due to close proximity to Juneteenth holiday and also AARP event the week prior. 
July/August: Senior Picnics with/at park- COA to provide drinks/snacks. Will discuss closer to time.
July 23rd from 1130-2pm
August 13th from 1130-2pm
Summer Social: July 11th at Park from 10-2. Unclear if COA to host/organize a cake swap again (Rachel to speak with Cyndie Stetson who may be interested in organizing)- if no cake swap we will do finger dessert and request residents to bring a dessert with them to share and COA to also possibly provide chips and drinks. There will NOT be a food truck this year. 
September Medicare talk:  Booked in for September 2nd at 4pm- Informational about ‘Medicare supplement vs. medicare advantage plan- whuch is best for me? – Rachel to confirm closer to the time.
September Third Thursday Coffee: ? stamp activity- Rachel to check closet to see what supplies we have. 
Yoga and bone building with Kate Peppard: Kelle brought a proposal from Highland Yoga, Kate Peppard who’s contract with the Park will be no longer after June 2026. The proposal was to continue working with the Town, through the COA, with 1 of 2 options
1)	Weekly classes via zoom- live- $60/week ($360 for a 6-week session) 
2)	Video recording- not live- $250 one time fee
A motion was made, seconded and passes unanimously to fund a trial 6 week course for $360. The COA will then touch base about how class went and will decide to continue with this program or switch to a yoga class. Kelle will collect more info on the yoga program. Online classes to start in August or September.
Kelle sent email to Heath COA to check in if they would split cost of classes- they discussed at last meeting and declined to help provide financial support for this program at this time. Heath (and other out of town residents) will be offered the option to use the program for a $5 fee, which will then be deducted from the cost the COA has to pay. 
Future Activities in the works:
Magic Wings Butterfly Garden: organize a trip using carpool, but COA pay for entry fee for seniors. Postponed at this time 
Rockwell Museum Trip- postponed
Mohawk State Forest- Postponed
Potential future activities (still being brainstormed)
•	Holiday Snacks (healthy)- demonstration how to make healthy snacks for the holidays. Putting together a small (easy) cookbook or folks to take home. 
•	Community Welcome Guide: idea brought forth to provide a guide to the area, services, maps, things to do etc for new seniors/residents in town. May be a multi-committee/board effort. Includes local food, shopping, fun/outdoor, handman, medical care, park maps. BJ will create a Google Doc to start adding ideas to this. 
•	Rowe “Village”- a spin-off of the ‘Village” that was set up in Shutesbury, Leverret and Wendell, providing free services /rides to seniors in town. Pre-reg/appointments would be required. Services include handman work, gardening, assistance with household chores, grocery shopping, rides/med rides etc. This is a very large undertaking requiring a lot of research- we will follow up on this at a later date. 
•	Paint and sip- Donna to look into this for the winter- may be a zoom event, possibly paid for in part by the cultural council. 
•	Positivity Speaker- ? Richie Davis who was a community journalist and author. GCC or Rowe Camp may have suggested speakers- will look into this at a future time. ?Cultural Council to pay for this with grant money. 
•	Pet talk- getting a local veterinarian/retired vet to come and chat about pet safety/health/ answer pet questions.  
•	Suggestion Box- It was discussed to put a suggestion box at the Town Hall entrance and in the Library for the seniors/community members to make suggestions of what activities they would like to see or topics they would like to get more information about.  
•	Check-in communities/Buddy system- Household groups of 3-4 would combine to make a ‘pod’ and check-in on each other at least weekly in whatever way suits them- Ie. Text, email, phone call, in-person, social media, etc. The COA would then do a matching process and create the ‘pods’ after sign up is complete. This is voluntary and people/households would be able to add themselves to the pods or discharge themselves as they desire. This will be tabled for the future due to lack of interest/confusion. 
•	Handy Person List: live Google doc still being added to, but there is enough contact details to get the list into the community. We are unsure of the logistics of putting this list out to the public- this is tabled for now.

Other Business/MISC: 
There was talk about a paint and sip happening at the Library- Diane will speak with Molly to see if this is true and if COA could pay for seniors to attend this event. 
Coa also in need of a new member. Rachel will reach out to a few residents to gauge their interest. 
Next meeting is Wednesday June 10th at 3pm.
Meeting adjourned at 3:58pm