Bonnie Radway does it all.
She’s involved with local theater, attends Tuesday line dancing classes, goes to football games at Spartan Stadium and basketball games at Breslin Center.
Seniors abundant throughout E.L.
Line-dancing instructor Joyce Nielson, front, leads her senior line-dancing class at Hannah Community Center, 819 Abbot Road. Nielson includes many different genres of dance from the waltz to salsa in her class that is held for an hour once a week.
The 70-year-old East Lansing resident has taken advantage of what the community has to offer since her June 2002 retirement. She taught in Chicago for 10 years before moving to East Lansing, where she became a computer instructor in the Ingham Intermediate School District for 32 years.
In addition to housing MSU, East Lansing is home to more than 2,800 senior citizens — 6 percent of the city’s population.
Some students say they have limited interaction with the city’s senior citizens.
“I don’t run into them very much,” communication senior Ashley Middleton said. “They probably don’t want to be around a bunch of crazy college kids.”
Kelly Arndt, director of East Lansing Prime Time, a seniors’ program in Hannah Community Center, 819 Abbot Road, said a college town is the ideal community for senior citizens.
“It’s got diversity, culture, services to stay healthy and fit and lifelong learning opportunities.”
Diversity is one of the “greatest features” of being near a university, she said.
As of 2007, Prime Time has 2,100 registered members who participate in events ranging from fencing to clogging.
The group moved from the Valley Court Community Center, 201 Hillside Court, to the larger Hannah Community Center about eight years ago.
“In the first year here, our participation doubled,” Arndt said.
While Prime Time participants expand their social network, they also focus on what they can do to improve East Lansing.
The nine-member Seniors’ Commission, made up of elderly East Lansing residents, meets annually with MSU’s University Student Commission to discuss the issues that are important to each group.
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The University Student Commission acts as a liaison between the city and MSU students.
“The Seniors’ Commission and the student commission both represent very specific age constituencies,” said Brett Baker, the student commission’s vice chairman and a public administration and public policy senior.
The different members of the community can come together to solve problems, regardless of age, Baker said.
“East Lansing is a college town, a university city, and it can be easy to forget that the city has other issues outside of university issues,” he said. “It’s good to remember that there is an entire East Lansing population that’s unaffiliated with the university population.”
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