Site manager Solvay Gillen reads off bingo numbers for seniors who played after lunch at the Wrangell Senior Center on March 9. The participants played until "blackout" - when every combination of letters and numbers had been filled, and everyone got a turn to win a prize.
Sunlight streamed in through the windows of the Wrangell Senior Center where a handful of elders gathered after lunch last Wednesday to play bingo until "blackout" - the second such gathering since the center reopened to group activities after pandemic safety measures eased in light of declining case counts.
Lunch wrapped up early, so the game began at about 12:30, with Solvay Gillen, site manager, calling out letter and number combinations. The bingo cards were well-loved, American Legion Auxiliary-branded, heavy, sturdy boards, with little slider tabs to toggle a transparent red square to match the number-letter combination Gillen called out, if it was on a player's bingo card.
Emma Frost and Sue Stevens, two of Wrangell's Tlingit elders, played with rapt focus at a table by the windows until Stevens won and got to select her prize from a table of items. Lansing Hayes, another elder, also hit bingo.
Slowly but surely the bingo dispenser emptied as Gillen worked through all the bingo balls, with winnings for everyone until blackout, when all the squares were filled on players' cards.
Norm Canaday, 88, was there, observing and watching.
"Did you enjoy it, Norm?" asked Gillen, after the game was over.
"Yes, it brought back memories," Canaday replied.
"Yeah?" prompted Gillen.
"Yes, of the Korean War," Canaday said.
In addition to surviving that war, Canaday dodged flames when his home in Panhandle Trailer Court caught fire in 2020 by jumping out the back door onto a mattress his neighbors had dragged over to cushion his fall.
Gillen is Tlingit, and her husband J.C. Gillen is Tlingit and Haida.
"I found a little niche for me," she said Friday, of her work at the senior center. She was born and raised in Wrangell, and said the senior center has been something that has been a part of her life. "I grew up with Native Alaskan traditions, and respecting our elders is a major part of that tradition. The elders just have a place in my heart."
Gillen took over as site manager last fall. She began working at the senior center in January 2021 as an assistant cook. She moved up to head cook, and then became site manager when the employee who had her job moved to Texas.
Prior to the senior center, Gillen worked at Central Council of the Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska, but quit during the COVID era to homeschool her children, Annika, 9 and Leeya, 5, who is turning 6 soon. Her kids went back to school and Gillen found herself needing something to do.
"I love (the senior center) because it's convenient for me as a parent. As soon as I'm done with my work, I can go pick up the girls," Gillen said.
She enjoys finding services for the elders and said they feel comfortable speaking to her.
"A lot of times I find that our elders who are born and raised here prefer to chit chat with someone that knows their family," she said.
Stevens, also born and raised in Wrangell, said she went Outside and earned three college degrees, but eventually came back home. Being isolated from the people she grew up with was tough.
"I haven't come up to socialize since the pandemic started," Stevens said. "I wanted to see some of the other elders."
Gillen said there were no group activities during the pandemic, and when COVID-19 cases went up the center wasn't even open for in-person dining.
"These are the first activities we've started to do," she said.
She's hoping this is a return to pre-pandemic gatherings to "try to help our folks get out, and get closer in the community."
Gillen plans to offer bingo every other Wednesday at the center. They plan to make art and watch "The King and I" on March 23 - "art and a movie," Gillen said - then play bingo after lunch on March 30.
As spring and summer approach, Gillen wants to plan some outdoor excursions and fundraising activities, such as a car wash and hotcakes-to-go for breakfast.
The senior center is looking for a part-time assistant cook. Gillen also hopes to get an activities coordinator for 10 hours a week.
It's easier to check on elders when they're outside doing group activities, Gillen said. "See if we can get our people out and about, not bugging them at home and calling them, so there is not such a prodding into their life. Some people don't like that," she said.
She's hoping a couple of tour companies can provide a ride for the elders to see Shakes Glacier up the Stikine River.
"We can plan a picnic out the road and bring a sack lunch, drive out the road and do the (Nemo) Loop ... maybe see the return of river adventures," Gillen said.
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