Swinging Sixties OAC’s cooling center offers fun times and safe temps for all!
July 1 through Independence Day weekend, the weather was on the oppressive side. It reached the mid-90’s to 100 °F but the high humidity pushed the heat index up so the temperature felt at least ten degrees higher.
As part of the NYC Emergency Heat Plan, city agencies put out the alert to their cooling center sites a day or two before a projected high heat occurrence. This is so they can prepare and staff for days with extended hours or on weekends or holidays. During the first week of July, the cooling center alert went into effect for July 1–July 5. Two of those days were holidays: July 3 was the workday day off for July 4.
Designated libraries, privately owned public spaces, older adult centers (OAC), and Petcos become cooling centers with as little as a day’s notice. Most are open to the public, although some OACs request seniors only on the cooling center map.
Swinging Sixties OAC is a cooling center that opens its doors to all ages.
Swinging Sixties was open until 7 p.m. on July 1st and 2nd. Usually they close at 4 p.m. Over the first five days in July, 285 seniors and 38 non-seniors came in to get relief from the heat.
“Approximately 15% of the older adults were new faces [as were] all of the non-seniors, including a young couple who just happened to be walking by and saw the Cooling Center sign. Several people said they saw Swinging Sixties listed as the area Cooling Center on [LinkNYC] on Graham Avenue,” said Cheryl Kamen, deputy director of older adult centers, NORC, and Social Adult Day for St. Nicks Alliance.
In addition to the air conditioning, visitors were offered some fun activities, such as: bingo, ring toss, corn hole, cards, dominos, nerf basketball, timed word search, and movies.
Swinging Sixties provided the snacks, ice cream, bottled water, coffee, and tea. NYC Aging does provide lunches to the seniors during weekdays, but not on holidays or weekends.
“So we requested donations from the participants (a few of whom were very generous), topped it off out of fundraising when necessary, then ordered what the participants would enjoy that day — pizza, Chinese food, and chicken parmigiana with spaghetti. Some of the participants bought 2-liter sodas for everyone,” said Kamen.
The Greenline 