Page 8 - Florida Sentinel 2-19-16 Edition

Local
New Adult Activity Center Announces Grand Opening
PowHERful Summit
Women of Color Golf in conjunction with Starfish Foundation, Soledad O’Brien (formerly of CNN) and Brad Raymond present the PowHERful Summit Saturday, February 20, 2016, 8 a. m.- 5 p. m. on the campus of the Univer- sity of South Florida CAMLS (Center For Advance Medical Learn- ing and Simulation) building. The event is sponsored by Coca Cola Beverages of Florida.
The program is for girls ages 15-22 years old. The program focus is life skills, academics, careers, college info and golf clinic.
For more information, contact Clemmie Perry, (813) 892-0659, or visit www.womenofcolorgolf.org
events page.
KATRINA OSBORNE
BY LEON B. CREWS Sentinel Staff Writer
On Friday, February 26th from 12 p. m. to 6 p. m., Pearlena’s Adult Activity Center will be hosting their grand opening at 9309 North Florida Avenue.
Everyone is invited to come as they are and meet and greet the staff of the facility. There will be refreshments and hors d’oeuvres and live music will feature Rita Wilson and Theo Valentin.
Katrina Osborne, who along with her mother, Arlena Chisholm (owner), and her brother, Letroy Carter, oper- ate the facility, said the idea to open this kind of facility started with the death of her grand- mother, who the center is named
ARLENA CHISHOLM (Owner)
for.
“She died at the age of 63, and
her life was hard. She was a very independent person, never drove, and walked everywhere. She cared for elderly people her entire life, and I developed a soft spot for seniors and I love listen- ing to their stories.
“My mother had a vision of a bed and breakfast, and that’s how it got started. We wanted to give the seniors a quality of life and a place to go.”
Mrs. Osborne said she ran into a young lady 2-1/2 years ago, and they talked about adult day care.
“That’s when we decided an activity center would be perfect. We wanted activities for the sen- iors to be the focus.
LETROY CARTER
“Seniors still want to con- tribute to society, and we con- sider this to be a ministry.
“During my employment with the Crisis Center, I met a lot of people, and it’s a pleasure to be a blessing to people and let them know someone cares. Some come with low self-esteem, and they seem to change when they are around people that care.”
Mrs. Osborne said they de- cided to do their grand opening as an opportunity for people to see what they have and that they can have fun while they work.
“What we’re doing is unique and out of the box.
“We did our homework, and found out there’s a waiting list for adult day care. I know there are a lot of Adult Living Facilities and senior centers, but we wanted something different. We identified areas where our con- cept would work best and we set- tled on the location at the old Floriland Mall.”
Mrs. Osborne said they
PEARLENA CHESS ...center named in her honor
have a family operated business, with her mother, brother, and best friend comprising the staff, and they want to bring diversity by allowing their staff to reflect just that.
“Our mission is to provide older adults an opportunity to receive mental, emotional, social and physical stimulation. Our vi- sion is through motivation, ado- ration and active participation, seniors will enjoy a better quality of life.”
Among the activities being of- fered at the center will be arts and crafts, dancing, Bible inspi- rational class, board games, bowling, community mentoring, computer classes, exercise fit- ness, golf, healthy eating classes, meditation, massage, relaxation, memory exercise, movie/pop- corn night, ping pong, self de- fense, social networking, stretch class, and yoga class.
For more information about this new center, you can call (813) 559-9545.
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