PEOPLE
Serving seniors
Marceca named Associate Director of
Older Adult Services at Greenwich House
BY TEQUILA MINSKY
In 2003, 19 years ago, Laura
Marceca walked through
the doors of a newly renovated
space, the venue for a senior
center at 20 Washington
Square North.
At that time, the site named
The Center on the Square
(COS) was part of the Caring
Community, and had not been
in operation for 2 years. (Later,
in 2011, along with two other
senior centers, it became part
of Greenwich House.) When
she was about to open a senior
center from scratch.
Fast forward to New Year’s
Day of this year, the date when
Marceca started as Associate Director
of Older Adult Services,
overseeing Greenwich House as
they undertake a new and innovative
approach to serving older
adults and opening a new center
within Greenwich House, at the
Westbeth Artists Community.
Marceca explains that previously
each center had managed
independently under separate
contracts and now, under an inclusive
budget and network structure,
contacts and resources will
be collectively utilized.
In her new and expanded role,
Marceca will share her talents
corralling and harnessing volunteers,
extending her experience
and skills to all the centers.
“There’s so much out there, we
shouldn’t keep it at one center,“
says Marceca.
Comfort for seniors
Tom Conner who had recently
retired as a social worker
and was president of that
site’s Advisory Council greeted
her at the door as she entered
for the fi rst time back in 2003.
Tom became one of her valued
advisors.
Particularly, through the
years, Tom advised Marceca to
be attuned to what the membership
wanted and needed
and the new director took this
advice to heart.
While Marceca had been
the Director of Youth and
Family Services for a YMCA in
Queens, this new job gave her
the opportunity to create a dynamic
service for older adults
including access to meals and
programs, and most importantly,
socializing.
Additionally, she wanted to
create a comfortable and safe
space where people “can feel
themselves.” With input from
the Advisory Council, she organized
a brand new senior
center.
The Advisory Council guided
and drove her to do the
most for the center. Requests
were brought up at the monthly
membership meetings with
follow-up within the month
and reporting back.
“My focus is always the community
and ensuring everyone
has access to all available resources,”
relays Marceca of
one of her guiding principles.
Monthly trips, farmers market
coupons, and connecting
to the Community Seder at
Temple Emmanuel are just a
few programs that resulted
from Advisory Board requests.
As she says in the documentary
fi lm Somewhere to Be
about the center, creating a welcoming
atmosphere is another
of her goals.
“I want the person who lives
on Fifth Avenue in a penthouse
to be comfortable here but I
want the man who lives in the
park to come in and feel comfortable
and you don’t have to
worry about people judging
you. I think that’s one of the
most important things I try to
do here is to try to make everybody
feel comfortable.”
Establishing a respectful environment
extends to engagement
with the center staff.
Kitchen aide Loretta Wilson
who has worked at Center On
the Square for sixteen years
spontaneously speaks of her
boss, “Laura has a good heart.
She’s a special lady who takes
time with people and her staff.
Director Laura Marceca with the bagged lunches for graband
go.
She’s always looking out for me
and Robert (porter), who’s been
here 17 years.”
In 2014, Marceca stepped in
to organize the troubled Our
Lady of Pompeii (OLP) Senior
Center. Still director at Center
on the Square, in four months
she got OLP back on track to
be a vibrant center, which later
hosted a local precinct’s Christmas
dinner and a Google-sponsored
DJ-spinning senior prom
with a hopping dance party
and dinner.
Coping with COVID
Before the pandemic, Center
on the Square utilized 50 volunteers—
greeters at the front door,
helpers during the lunch service,
the management the theatre
desk or teaching classes. Now
there are about 15.
Also partnering with other
organizations became a standard
of the Center’s creative
programming for Marceca. A
list of partnered organizations
includes Ballet Trocedero (contact
came through the GH Music
School); the Creativity Center of
University Settlement, Su Casa
programs; virtual programs
through Live On; and collaboration
with hands-on art programs
with the Whitney. Come
spring, the unique relationship
with Washington Square Park
and the Conservancy will continue
with more physical activity
programs in the park.
Not used to NOT going off to
work, as she had for the previous
25 years, Marceca’s pandemictime
working from home had
been demanding. And, a whole
new set of issues needed to
be addressed.
During the 15 months from
home, she coordinated food
deliveries to GH seniors. (And,
PHOTOS BY TEQUILA MINSKY
eventually Greenwich House
became an authorized enroller
in the citywide delivery of food.)
She trained the Centers’ former
kitchen staff to make weekly
(and some daily) wellness calls,
30-40 a week, and report them
through Google Docs.
Marceca created and developed
a weekly mail-serve
with important information to
the growing 900+ GH older
adult members.
She segued 30 classes to
Zoom—the fi rst, the comedy
class moved to Zoom, just days
after the shut down.
This class continues a year
and half past its initial 13 sessions
and has resulted in Peacock
TV comedy special Good
Timing with Jo Firestone, nominated
for a 2021 Critics Choice
Award in the comedy category.
“Zoom opened up our class
offerings, giving us more scheduling
possibilities including
weekends and evening, ” Marceca
boasts including 60-some attendees
participating in the 10
A.M. Saturday Zoom exercise
class. About 12% of the Zoom
attendees are taking classes from
outside of New York City.
Then, for the briefest period—
fi ve months, the lunch service,
which had been curtailed,
opened to grab-and-go or eat inperson,
only two at a table. But
with transmissibility of the latest
COVID variant, lunch again is
only served as grab-and-go.
Meanwhile, tai chi, jewelry,
bookmaking, movement,
French, yoga, art class and studio,
and computer lessons are
held in person while the majority
of activities continue off-site.
The current weekly email
now includes a list of Zoom
links to classes and the monthly
lunch menus.
14 January 13, 2022 Schneps Media