Oakland resident Connelly, a social worker by training and almost a senior herself, runs four once-a-week senior activity centers in Oakland, leads seniors on Bay Area outings and coordinates summer camps for Bay Area seniors in California national forests.

East Bay adult schools and churches have partnered to sponsor senior activity centers for more than 30 years. Some remain largely volunteer-driven and oriented toward activities such as arts, crafts and dancing. One of Connelly's centers offers arts and crafts and line dancing, and one features English as a second language classes.

Each is like a weekly family gathering where participants, many of whom have been coming for decades, talk about their lives, support each other and enjoy a meal together.

Connelly also leads seniors in discussions about current events and provides practical information on subjects such as prescription drugs and how to protect yourself from scams. The focus, however, is on providing social support for seniors who are physically declining and who often live alone and have no family. She makes herself available by phone and visits them when they are hospitalized.

Connelly remains a constant for seniors she has served for many years.

If you ask her why she has extended this commitment for so long, she simply says that the seniors are like family to her, and they are great role models for aging with dignity and grace. Although technically they are her adult school students, she recalls the words from "The King and I:" "By our pupils we will be taught."

When she is not tending to her "family" in senior activity centers, Connelly leads senior outings throughout the Bay Area. Day trips include Stinson Beach, the NUMMI auto factory, the Cliff House and Sutro Baths in San Francisco and the Ruth Bancroft Gardens in Walnut Creek.

Participants travel together on public transit from Oakland.

Connelly and Joan Adams of Oakland's Adult Education department co-coordinate summer camps for seniors 50 and older. The camps, near Yosemite and in the Stanislaus National Forest, are as exciting to Connelly as her annual adventures with her husband to such destinations as South America, Africa, China and India.

She loves enabling seniors of every means to come together in the great outdoors. The low-cost, five-day programs offer hiking, swimming, games, crafts, music, discussions and a chance to just sit under a tree near a river with a good book. Connelly can't wait for this summer to greet a 102-year-old who first came to camp at age 99.

You can reach Connelly at (510) 531-6724 or kathyparkes1@aol.com. For more information about senior activity centers, Connelly's Bay Area outings and the senior summer camp program, call (510) 879-4090. Outings and summer camps are not restricted to Oakland seniors. East Bay seniors can contact their local adult school to ask about senior activity centers.

Sandra J. Cohen, R.N., and Roger Cormier are consultants who help East Bay families plan and coordinate care of an older relative at home or in a care facility. You can reach them at (510) 652-3377 or (925) 945-8855 or visit www.eldercaremanagers.com.

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