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Friendship Club
News
& Announcements
No need to move to Florida or a local senior community to enjoy senior life in Montville ! Just look toward the Pine Brook Jewish Center’s The Friendship Club to receive many of the benefits these senior communities have to offer—a social network, entertainment, and an education. This club started in 2000 with about 60 members and six years later, it has grown to a strong 230 members. Betty Crane, the coordinator for this club, has been instrumental to its wild success.
Here’s some background….The Friendship Club got its start with a three-year grant from The Grotta Foundation for Senior Care in partnership with Metrowest, the Healthcare Foundation of New Jersey, and the Wallerstein Foundation for Geriatric Life. The Pine Brook Jewish Center is among 25 synagogues to receive this one-time grant, which was to provide programming specifically for the senior members of the synagogue. In this case, senior members are defined as those who are 55 and older. The intention of the grant was to motivate seniors to become re-involved with the synagogue. In the past, many synagogues focused on the nursery school and religious school and the seniors were the “forgotten members.” The Friendship Club changed all that.
Once we received the grant, we surveyed our senior members to determine what activities were of interest and when to best schedule these events. After an overwhelming response to this survey, The Friendship Club was on its way. On July 11, 2000 , the club held its first event—a trip to the JCC in West Orange to see a fabulous performance of the musical production “Children of Eden.” For the first few months, there was a misperception about who could belong to the club and the purpose of the club. In February 2001, The Friendship Club rectified the situation by holding a “Get to Know Us Brunch” and the club really took off from there.
There have been many successful programs in the past including annual Shabbat dinners, annual mid-winter Sunday brunches, movie nights, evening meetings with guest speakers, trips to the Museum of Jewish Heritage, the Jewish Museum, The Newark Museum (the world’s best-kept secret!), The Jewish Theological Seminary during Sukkot, The Lower East Side Tenement Museum, NJPAC, the Community Theatre and off-Broadway productions. The club continues to build on its momentum with many exciting events scheduled for the upcoming year. Keep in mind that many of the offsite trips sell out quickly, so if you are interested in joining in on the fun, make sure you book early!
Come join The Friendship Club and enjoy all that it has to offer. As long as you are Jewish, at least 55 years old, and young at heart, you can be a member. Our members are single and married, male and female, PBJC members and non-members. Although a majority of the members live in Montville Township and the Parsippany area, thanks to word-of-mouth, we also have members from other areas of Morris County and Essex County . Since the grant ran out 4 years ago, we now have annual dues of $15 per person, which covers the club’s costs that include mailings, program fees for speakers, and refreshments. To find out more about The Friendship Club, please call our coordinator, Betty Crane.
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