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<\/a><\/p>\nSCOTTSDALE, AZ \u2014 There is a lot going on at the Granite Reef Senior Center off Granite Reef Road and McDowell. Two decades of it.<\/p>\n
“The Granite Reef Senior Center has been open since 2006. We just celebrated our 20th anniversary this year,” said Jessica Rapp, the Human Services Manager at the center. “It’s just a fun community center geared for seniors.”<\/p>\n
This week, they added one more activity to the list.<\/p>\n
“Hi, my name’s Mary Helen Garduno. I’m here at the Granite Reef Senior Center in Scottsdale, and the highs today will be 100,” Garduno said, microphone in hand.<\/p>\n
The whole thing was Rapp’s idea. Like many ABC15 viewers, she had been watching our KidCasters segments at home. Then she started thinking.<\/p>\n
“Well, why can’t our seniors do that? They’re young and fun still,” Rapp said. “So let’s do SeniorCasters.”<\/p>\n
So we handed them the microphone. Then we asked one question. What is your core weather memory?<\/p>\n
The answers came from all over the map.<\/p>\n
“The haboob. I’ve actually watched it. I’ve been in it, and I’ve watched it from afar,” Garduno said. “So it’s very, very exciting and interesting.”<\/p>\n
For Radhakrishna Jethani, the memory came from a long way north of the Valley.<\/p>\n
“A few years back, when I was in Wisconsin, 14 inches of snow came in 48 hours,” Jethani said. “We could not get out from the house.”<\/p>\n
Paul Diamond has been here long enough to remember what the monsoon looked like before the Valley filled in.<\/p>\n
“Probably before all the development, the intensity of the monsoon storms we had,\u201d Diamond said.<\/p>\n
Ask him to pick a favorite storm and he will not do it.<\/p>\n
“There’s been so many. There’s not really one,” Diamond said. “But they’re all my favorite.”<\/p>\n
Decades of weather in a few sentences. Storms they drove through. Winters they left behind. And a new skill these kids at heart have picked up in their golden years.<\/p>\n
“A big thing in everybody’s life right now is finding your purpose,” Rapp said. “That’s what we’re here for. To help people connect with each other and help find their purpose.”<\/p>\n
By the end of the morning, Rapp sounded like she had just watched her students nail a school play.<\/p>\n
“I’m so proud of them. I feel like a teacher or a mom today,” Rapp said. “They had the courage, and they were brave, and they got up here and asked their questions.”<\/p>\n
Rapp hopes SeniorCasters spreads across the Valley, and that other senior centers get their chance.<\/p>\n
Want more news in your community? Add ABC15 as a preferred source on Google below:<\/p>\n
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