Masquerade Ball to aid Abingdon Senior Center

Stained glass masks will be among the decorations at March 30 event

ABINGDON, Va. – At the Abingdon Senior Center, you can learn how to make stained glass ornaments.
Seniors here can even show you how – in simply an hour – to make a stained glass butterfly that you can hang at your window.
But making a butterfly is not the main mission now.
These days, seniors like 79-year-old Bill Graves are busy building masks with stained glass.
All are simply for show.
“We don’t actually wear the masks,” said Graves, who moved to the Abingdon area from Florida, not long after retiring as a manufacturing manager in Chicago, Ill.
Making stained glass starts by cutting out a pattern, laying it on the glass and cutting out glass pieces, Graves said.
You grind and smooth the glass edges. Wash off the glass. Then cover the edges with copper foil tape, using a soldering gun to join it all together.
Just make sure it’s clean, said Shirley Graves, Bill’s wife. “If it isn’t clean, [the tape] won’t stick.”
This is an art. But, you know, it really sounds like a lot of work.
Still, no one is complaining.
“We have a good time doing it,” said Lorena Bolling, one of the seniors at the center.

‘STRATEGICALLY PLACE’
All seem to be smiling now, too, as they work on decorations for the upcoming Masquerade Ball.
That’s a big deal: It’s being held on March 30, 7:30 p.m., as a fundraiser for the center.
And it might just prove to be Abingdon’s social event of the spring.
Seniors here have volunteered to make about a dozen masquerade masks. Later, those masks will be put on display, said the center’s assistant director, Madeline Dean.
“I figure we will probably strategically place them out on different tables,” said Dexter Peltzer, the director of the senior center.
Among the workhorses of the workshop, making stained glass, is Paul Counts, an 88-year-old resident of Lebanon, Va. Now retired from Pittston Coal Co., Counts fixes broken pieces and solders them back together.
Regularly, Counts comes to the Abingdon Senior Center with his wife, Lynn.
The Counts couple, among others, are now making plans to attend the ball. But, Paul Counts said, “I don’t know what we plan to dress as.”

‘OPEN TO ALL AGES’
Opened in 2002, the Abingdon Senior Center spans 15,000 square feet.
“Everyone thinks the center is an old person’s place,” Dean said. “But it’s not in any way.”
Membership is open to people age 50 and up.
Besides that, age is only a number, Dean added, saying a real age is a mindset: “60 is the new 40.”
Each Thursday, an all-ages crowd converges in the Virginia Ballroom of the Abingdon Senior Center for a jam that attracts not just seniors but a much younger audience.
“It’s open to all ages,” Dean said. “It’s inter-generational.”
Thursday’s music features country, old-time mountain music, gospel and blues plus Celtic and Irish music – even some old-time rock ’n’ roll.
It’s an open jam, Peltzer said. “The reason we kept it as an open acoustic jam is everybody does bluegrass. We wanted this to be a reflection of Abingdon. And a reflection of Abingdon is you have people who have retired here from all over the country.”

‘BEST ACOUSTICS’
About 540 can be seated in the main room of the Virginia Ballroom, open since October 2008.
Here, the interior is elegant, with chandeliers hanging from the ceiling.
“Musicians tell us we have the best acoustics, the best dance floor and the best sound system in the whole area,” Peltzer said. “We are used by everyone.”
Last year, during the Virginia Highlands Festival, the ballroom featured games of miniature golf plus a beauty pageant.
“It benefits so many people,” senior Lorena Bolling said. “It’s not just us.”

‘NEED A LOT’
But, here, it’s not all just fun and games.
“We need a lot of contributions to run other programs for our services,” Peltzer said.
The Abingdon Senior Center may be independently owned, Dean said, but it’s far from independently wealthy.
Five days a week, the center distributes Meals on Wheels – up to 2,700 meals a month, sending out food to about 100 to 150 shut-ins, seniors and disabled people each day, Peltzer said.
Those numbers, Peltzer added, are up from 1,000 meals just two years ago, as volunteers deliver meals to Meadowview, Damascus and all over Abingdon.
The upcoming ball will help support Meals on Wheels while also raising money for a matching federal grant to support operations, Peltzer said.

‘THE CHOCOLATE ROOM’
Expect a renaissance theme at the Masquerade Ball plus lots of food – and even tarot card readings by “Haunted Historic Abingdon, Vol. 1” author Donnamarie Emmert, who styles herself as the “Haint Mistress of Abingdon.”
One space will be set aside as “The Chocolate Room,” featuring lots of tasty goodies, Dean said.
Here, too, you can look for jugglers, artists and living statues.
You can also expect to find a cash bar for beer and wine plus music by The Collegians.
Hopefully, too, Peltzer said, the center can raise as much as $10,000 at this “Merry Evening of Fancy, Festivity, and Fantasy.”

IF YOU GO
What: Masquerade Ball
Where: Abingdon Senior Center, 300 Senior Drive, Abingdon, Va.
When: March 30, 7:30 p.m.
How much: $20 per person for members or $25 per person for the general public
Info: (276) 628-3911
E-mail: abgseniorcenter@bvunet.net
Web: www.abingdonseniorcenter.com