JOSEPH CIPOLLA SENIOR ACTIVITY CENTER
93 N FARVIEW AVENUE
PARAMUS, NJ
APRIL 2017
A Note from the Director
Spring is a time of new beginnings; as the flowers begin to bloom and the
grass turns green it is a wonderful reminder of all the beauty there is in this
world.
We are extending the useable area behind the Center by having a new
deck built adjacent to our picnic table area. We are excited to begin playing
Bocce outdoors once more! There is shuffleboard, chess games, and picnic
tables all waiting for our Paramus Seniors to start enjoying. We continue
having our indoor activities such as Yoga, Zumba, Meditation, Bingo, Art,
Line Dancing, Movies, Mahjong, Billiards and Cards.
May the Spring season bring you a renewed sense of being and an
uplifted spirit. May the new Spring blossoms bring joy to your heart.
Anne
MEMBERSHIP REQUIREMENTS: Must be a Paramus
resident and 62 years of age or older.
Contact Information:
Joseph Cipolla Senior Activity Center
Main number: 201-265-2100 Ext. 6120
Anne Schneider, Director: 201-265-2100 Ext. 6121
Danielle Wells, Clerk: 201-265-2100 Ext. 6120
BOROUGH OF PARAMUS TELEPHONE NUMBERS
Police: 201-262 – 3400
Mayor: 201-265-2100 Ext. 2210
Borough Administrator: 201-265-2100 Ext. 2210
Borough Clerk: 201-265-2100 Ext. 2200
Health Department: 201-265-2100 Ext.2300
Human Services: 201-265-2100 Ext. 6100
Pool: 201-265-2100 Ext. 6140
Tax Collector: 201-265-2100 Ext. 2280
Veterans Affairs: 201-265-2100 Ext. 6110
Library: 201-599-1300
SENIOR BUS: 201-265-2100 Ext. 3150
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Joseph Cipolla Senior Activity Center
APRIL 2017
OUR GANG
The Joseph Cipolla Senior Activity Center Hosts three clubs for residents. Club
members participate in many enjoyable and varied activities.
AARP CHAPTER #3834
Our meetings begin at 1:00 pm the second Thursday of the month and everyone is welcome. Refreshments are served at
the meetings and we usually have a guest speaker. Our activities include presenting scholarships to graduates who are
contemplating a career in nursing or medical profession, collecting box top coupons for the schools and manufacturer‘s
coupons for the families of the military serving our country overseas. If you care to help us in our undertaking, we are always looking for new members!
If interested in joining, please call Margaret Sortino 201-265-2305
SENIOR CITIZENS #1 CLUB
This club holds meetings on the 2nd and 4th Wednesday of the month. There is a social hour that starts at 11:00 am
where coffee and cake is provided. The meeting begins at 12 noon with a short business meeting followed by a guest
speaker of interest to seniors or live entertainment when available. We have terrific day trips and occasionally overnight
trips. There is a picnic in July and a holiday party in December. Our installation of officers is held in March at Season‘s in
Washington Township. We welcome all new members! All Paramus residents are welcome to join.
For information regarding membership, please call Barbara Brennen 201– 845-9310
SENIOR PIONEERS OF PARAMUS
Come join us on the first and third Thursday of each month at 1:00 pm for some socializing, a cup of coffee and dessert.
We are a social gathering club for seniors residing in Paramus. The club provides you with access to good fellowship, entertainment, trips and the latest senior updates from around Bergen County, as well as professional speakers.
For information regarding membership, please call Barbara Sharples 201-225-1301
YOGA:
Mondays - 10:00am with Nitiya
Wednesdays - 9:30am with Sonia
Fridays - 9:00am with Mary Ann
Cost: $5 for 2 classes $8 for 3 classes
CHAIR YOGA: Fridays 10:00am
with Joan
Cost: $3/class
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Joseph Cipolla Senior Activity Center
APRIL 2017
APRIL BIRTHDAY SPOTLIGHT
LEONARDO DA VINCI was born on April 15, 1452, in Tuscany outside the village of Anchiano in present-day Italy. Born out of wedlock,
to respected Florentine notary Ser Piero and a young peasant woman Caterina, he was raised by his father and his stepmothers. At the
age of five, he moved to his father‘s family estate in nearby Vinci, the Tuscan town from which the surname associated with Leonardo
derives.
Leonardo received little formal education beyond basic reading, writing and mathematics instruction, but his artistic talents were evident
from an early age. Around the age of 14, da Vinci began a lengthy apprenticeship with the noted artist Andrea del Verrocchio in Florence.
He learned a wide breadth of technical skills including metalworking, leather arts, carpentry, drawing, painting and sculpting. His earliest
known dated work—a pen-and-ink drawing of a landscape in the Arno valley—was sketched in 1473.
Florentine court records show that in 1476 da Vinci and four other young men were charged with sodomy, a crime punishable by exile or
even death. Although da Vinci was acquitted, his whereabouts went entirely undocumented for the following two years.
Leonardo thought sight was humankind‘s most important sense and eyes the most important organ. He stressed the importance of
saper vedere, ―knowing how to see.‖ He believed in the accumulation of direct knowledge and facts through observation. ―A good painter
has two chief objects to paint—man and the intention of his soul,‖ da Vinci wrote. ―The former is easy, the latter hard, for it must be expressed by gestures and the movement of the limbs.‖ To more accurately depict those gestures and movements, da Vinci began to seriously study anatomy and dissect human and animal bodies during the 1480s. His drawings of a fetus in utero, the heart and vascular system, sex organs and other bone and muscular structures are some of the first pictures on human record.
In addition to his anatomical investigations, Da Vinci studied botany, geology, zoology, hydraulics, aeronautics and physics. He sketched
his observations on loose sheets of papers and pads that he tucked inside his belt. He placed the papers in notebooks and arranged
them around four broad themes—painting, architecture, mechanics and human anatomy. He filled dozens of notebooks with finely drawn
illustrations and scientific observations. His ideas were mainly theoretical explanations, laid out in exacting detail, but they were rarely
experimental.
'The Last Supper' and Mona Lisa
Around 1495, Ludovico commissioned da Vinci to paint ―The Last Supper‖ on the back wall of the dining hall inside the monastery of
Milan‘s Santa Maria delle Grazie. The masterpiece, which took approximately three years to complete, captures the drama of the moment
when Jesus informs the Twelve Apostles gathered for Passover dinner that one of them would soon betray him. The range of facial expressions and the body language of the figures around the table bring the masterful composition to life. The decision by da Vinci to paint
with tempera and oil on dried plaster instead of painting a fresco on fresh plaster led to the quick deterioration and flaking of ―The Last
Supper.‖
Da Vinci started working in 1503 on what would become his most well known painting the ―Mona Lisa.‖. The mystery surrounding the
identity of the subject, Princess Isabella of Naples, an unnamed courtesan and da Vinci‘s own mother have been put forth as potential
sitters for the masterpiece. It has even been speculated that the subject wasn‘t a female at all but da Vinci‘s longtime apprentice Salai
dressed in women‘s clothing. Based on accounts from an early biographer, however, the "Mona Lisa" is a picture of Lisa del Giocondo,
the wife of a wealthy Florentine silk merchant. they never received it. For da Vinci, the "Mona Lisa" was forever a work in progress as it
was his attempt at perfection. Leonardo never parted with the painting, but bequeathed it to his assistant Salai. Today, the "Mona Lisa"
hangs in the Louvre Museum in Paris, France, secured behind bulletproof glass and is a priceless national treasure seen by millions of
visitors each year.
Final Years
Leonardo returned to Milan in 1506 to work for the very French rulers who had overtaken the city seven years earlier and forced him to
flee. Among the students who joined his studio was young Milanese aristocrat Francesco Melzi, who would become da Vinci‘s closest
companion for the rest of his life. He did little painting during his second stint in Milan, however, and most of his time was instead dedicated to scientific studies.
At 1515 the King of France and Pope Leo X , offered da Vinci the title ―Premier Painter and Engineer and Architect to the King.‖ Along
with Melzi, da Vinci departed for France, never to return. He lived in the Chateau de Cloux (now Clos Luce) near the king‘s summer
palace along the Loire River. As in Rome, da Vinci did little painting during his time in France. One of his last commissioned works was a
mechanical lion that could walk and open to reveal a bouquet of lilies. He continued work on his scientific studies until his death at the age
of 67. Da Vinci's assistant, Melzi, became the principal heir and executor of his estate.
Page 5
Monday
JOSEPH CIPOLLA SENIOR ACTIVITY CENTER
Tuesday
APRIL 2017
Wednesday
Thursday
Friday
3
4
11:00 Coloring/Conversation AM Bocce
12:30 Bridge
9:30 Healthy Bones
2:00 Zumba Gold
1:00 Bingo
2:00 Mahjong
12:00 Cards
Billiards
Billiards
5
9:30 Yoga
9:30 Meditation
11:00 Art Class
12:00 Movie
2:00 Mahjong
2:30 Canasta
Billiards
6
AM Bocce
9:30 Healthy Bones
1:00 Pioneers Meeting
Billiards
7
AM Bocce
9:00 Yoga
10:00 Chair Yoga
11:15 Line Dancing
1:00 Meditation
2:00 Zumba Gold
Billiards
10
11
10:00 Yoga
AM Bocce
11:00 Coloring/Conversation 9:30 Healthy Bones
12:30 Senior Fitness
1:00 Bingo (Pizza)
12:30 Bridge
12:00 Cards
2:00 Zumba Gold
Billiards
2:00 Mahjong
Billiards
12
9:30 Yoga
9:30 Meditation
11:00 #1 Club Meeting
11:00 Art Class
2:00 Mahjong
2:30 Canasta
Billiards
13
AM Bocce
9:30 Healthy Bones
1:00 AARP Meeting
Billiards
14
Center is Closed
17
18
10:00 Yoga
AM Bocce
11:00 Coloring/Conversation 9:30 Healthy Bones
12:30 Bridge
1:00 Bingo ((Hot Dog)
2:00 Zumba Gold
12:00 Cards
2:00 Mahjong
Billiards
Billiards
19
9:30 Yoga
9:30 Meditation
11:00 Art Class
12:00 Movie
2:00 Mahjong
2:30 Canasta
Billiards
20
AM Bocce
9:30 Healthy Bones
1:00 Pioneers Meeting
Billiards
21
AM Bocce
9:00 Yoga
10:00 Chair Yoga
11:15 Line Dancing
2:00 Zumba Gold
Billiards
24
10:00 Yoga
11:00 Coloring/Conversation
12:30 Bridge
2:00 Zumba Gold
2:00 Mahjong
Billiards
26
9:30 Yoga
9:30 Meditation
11:00 #1 Club Meeting
11:00 Art Class
2:00 Mahjong
2:30 Canasta
Billiards
27
AM Bocce
28
AM Bocce
9:00 Yoga
10:00 Chair Yoga
11:15 Line Dancing
1:00 Meditation
2:00 Zumba
Billiards
25
AM Bocce
9:30 Healthy Bones
12:30 Paramus Women’s
Book Club
12:00 Cards
1:00 Bingo (Sandwiches)
Billiards
Billiards
Page 6
Joseph Cipolla Senior Activity Center
APRIL 2017
Spring Forward with your Inner Spirit
A message from Angela the Center‘s Meditation Leader
As I sit and write this article, I am in perfect view of my front lawn. It is a bright,
brisk March afternoon and I am in awe of the tall green Daffodil blades that have risen so
early this year. Although it‘s still winter, Spring has sprung!
I look to nature to inspire me,
and today is no different. Staring at the Daffodils, I am reminded of their life in stages.
During winter the daffodils go dormant (deep contemplation) and as the days
lengthen and the soil warms, the bulbs awaken and begin swelling with moisture from the
late winter and early spring rains. Soon after, flowering begins and the bright pastels
infuse the outdoors.
The essence of the daffodil life cycle is much like our own. We go dormant in the winter, staying indoors and
keeping warm. As soon as the warmth of early spring moves in, we become motivated to ‗spring forward‘ with projects,
clean-outs, etc. Our minds activate a feeling of ‗out with the old and in with the new‘! It is a time of renewal, rebirth, and
recharging!
While we‘re quick to clean out the garage or closet, we fail to ask ourselves, ―how often do I clean out the clutter I‘ve
gathered in my mind and spirit?‖
Through meditation practice, we can go deep and gain self-understanding, and release what no longer fits us
(subconsciously), like an old pair of shoes that will never be worn again. When meditating, we take
inventory of what
works and what doesn‘t work in our lives, reprogramming our thoughts and feelings, and in turn, being the best version of
ourselves.
I welcome you this year to spring the furthest with yourself and feel truly renewed through deep and contemplative
meditation!
Pictures from Winterfest (Continued on back page)
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Joseph Cipolla Senior Activity Center
APRIL 2017