Fridays at the Costa Mesa Senior Center are a lively and busy time with volunteers, staff and patrons going about their daily activities.

This particular Friday, Oct. 16 is no different. In addition to the usual ballroom, card playing and fitness classes, there is, however, a special presentation taking place in the Grand Hall 2 room; a Guided Autobiography: Family and Friends Storytelling event.

Hosted by the Costa Mesa Senior Center and Volunteer Action for Aging, an organization centered on engaging seniors through volunteerism, this was the grand finale of a month-long adventure of reflection, writing, remembrance and most of all storytelling.
Costa Mesa Senior Center was given the opportunity to participate in this rare occasion. The Guided Autobiography is described as “a semi-structured process for life review that incorporates individual and group experiences with autobiographical writing.”

Participants attended a two-hour class every week for a month. Through guided instruction, in-class exercises and homework, the participants created their own stories; their autobiographies. The process was simple: show up, write and share, but the outcome was so much more. A written legacy for families, written stories from the heart and a month-long class that influenced, enriched and helped a population to remember, to share with others and for many, to share publicly.

During the grand finale, a Guided Autobiography: Family and Friends Storytelling event, one-by-one people like Patty, Marilyn, Rueha, Rochelle, and mother and daughter duo Mary and Barbara told their story. There were stories of life, death, family, marriage, adoption and triumph.

Every story was different and every story was compelling. More importantly, everyone had a story.

Remembering the olive colored skin tone and dark black hair of her mother, “I remember the day mother dyed a bleach streak in her dark hair,” Patty mentions. She begins to get teary eyed as she remembers the way this made her feel.

And as one presenter stated, “Everyone has a story to tell, here is mine.”

The City’s Cultural Arts Committee and Parks and Community Services Department have set the stage for a unique, three-day arts event that will feature more than 100 pieces of art submitted by local community members.

The artwork will be displayed alongside one-of-a-kind pieces of furniture and vibrant home décor inside of the Cisco Home Showroom located in the SoCo Collection design center.

“This inaugural ARTventure event is primed to become an annual signature event that highlights and signifies why Costa Mesa is known as the City of the Arts,” said Justin Martin, the city’s supervisor of Parks and Community Services, which is overseeing the event.

The new ARTventure event, founded by the city’s Cultural Arts Committee, is free to the public and will run Friday, Nov. 13 through Sunday, Nov. 15.
This one-of-a-kind juried exhibition of art will showcase the work of local artists in a non-traditional gallery style format that pairs individual artwork with furniture, fixtures, home décor and unique design elements.

Accepted submissions include a variety of media, including oil, watercolor and acrylic paintings, graphite drawings, metal sculpture, fashion, photography, fiber art, mixed media as well as literary art.

To enhance the atmosphere of the event there will be live entertainment featuring strolling vocal and instrumental musicians, dance performances, and literary and culinary demonstrations. Youth performances and youth art coming from K-12 Costa Mesa schools will also be part of the event.

Friday’s event begins at 5:45 p.m. with a welcome from city leaders and members of the Cultural Arts Committee. Awards covering several categories will be presented to selected winning artists. Food and beverage will be part of the festivities as well as entertainment by the Irvine Jazz Trio.

Saturday and Sunday’s event will both begin at 11 a.m. and run until 5 p.m. Saturday’s event will feature displayed artwork as well as culinary demonstrations by Bistro Papillote and ST Patisserie, and a special musical performance by Ruben Gonzalez of Pasion Gitano, provided in thanks to the Segerstrom Center for the Arts.

Sunday is family day and will feature displayed art, demonstrations from the Strategic Kids Lego Engineering and Robotics Team from Davis Elementary School, an interactive animation station with special guest animator Lynn Okimura, a performance by the All-American Boys Chorus and an afternoon reading and discussion with 10-year-old child author Ryan Rector.

Ryan Rector

All submitted entries will be screened, juried and displayed at the Cisco Home venue. The art will then be judged by Kirby Piazza, Costa Mesa High School’s ACE Academy Visual and Performing Arts chair.

In addition to Cisco Home, the SoCo Collection design center and the Segerstrom Center for the Arts are sponsors of the event.

The SoCo Collection center is located at 3303 Hyland Ave, Costa Mesa.

The OC Fair Board of Directors voted 9-0 at the October meeting to begin the process to enter into a partnership with the city of Costa Mesa to construct a new vegetated bio-swale and multi-purpose bike and pedestrian trail along the southerly portion of Arlington Drive.

The board was given a presentation by Public Services Director Ernesto Munoz, who outlined how the city’s Engineering Division will work together with Kabbara Engineering and the OC Fair & Event Center to complete the project, which will require the removal of approximately 70,000 square feet of asphalt concrete on Arlington Drive.

The $3.2 million project will serve to beautify Arlington Drive and provide a biological filtration system for water runoff to the Upper Newport Bay.
To pay for the project, the City of Costa Mesa received a grant for $1.69 million and the OC Fair & Event Center will provide an additional $1 million. In addition, the Costa Mesa City Council allocated $510,000 for the work.

“This project will result in significant benefits to the OC Fair & Event Center and the overall community by installing much needed amenities along this unimproved section of Arlington Drive,” Munoz said. “It is exciting to take part in this partnership between the City and the OC Fair & Event Center to achieve common environmental as well as aesthetic goals.”

The collaboration between the City, the OC Fair & Event Center, and Kabbara Engineering will now continue in the development of construction documents.
Presentations of the upcoming improvements will be made to various stakeholders, including the Newport Mesa Unified School District as well as the Mesa Del Mar Community in early 2016.

Construction is anticipated to begin in the fall of 2016.

A new train has steamed its way in to the doors of the Senior Center.

No, it’s not your typical railway locomotive. It’s a fun and interactive game featuring those small rectangular domino tiles; better known as dominoes and the name of the game is Mexican Train.

A rather new addition to the Costa Mesa Senior Center, Wednesday’s from 1 to 4 p.m., you will likely bump into Guy Richards the class leader, Pat Bingo, Daisy Howard, Frances Sorensen, Margarete Stevenson and Robert Garlbraith to name a few, ready for a fun few hours of Mexican Train.

Daisy and Pat sit at a table together sharing smiles and laugher coupled with moments of intense concentration.

“You just stole my move, “ Daisy says with a laugh. “I’m fighting to get rid of my tiles.”

Mexican Train is an interactive game, encouraging the participants to use elements of strategy, critical thinking and development of a master plan in their moves. Usually the tables are full with the maximum four players at play, but this particular Wednesday, Oct., 21 there are only five players.

A fun-packed and thought-provoking game, Mexican train offers a quiet place with friends, analysis and evaluation coupled with laughter and smiles.

For questions on the Mexican train class or any other classes contact the Senior Center at 949-645-2356.

Between exercise, computer and arts and crafts classes such as the Monday afternoon quilting, the Costa Mesa Senior Center is busier than ever.

It’s likely that on any day of the week visitors to the senior center can find a presentation or seminar occurring, health screenings taking place or a class in progress.

Quilting is one of those classes.

On Mondays, from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., you will find women like Dolores Kaiser, Joanie Hunt, Mina Angorani and Marti Reiter, just to name a few, are cutting, talking, laying out patterns and sewing masterpieces together.

With a combined 63 years of experience and donated materials, these women spend their afternoon quilting and talking about life, patterns and swapping opinions on their work. On this particular day, there was talk about Oktoberfest, family and surviving cancer.

But quilting together is not just about a free class on Monday afternoon, it’s also an opportunity for sociability, comradery and the art and craft of quilting and friendship.

When asked if their quilting class is more than just a time to quilt, a smiling Dolores responds, “Oh yes, we are friends and like to talk about things. We have been quilting together for some time.”

To date, these women have donated their works of art to Long Beach Veterans Hospital, Santa Ana Life Center, and Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation and anticipate donating baby quilts to Camp Pendleton this summer.

The time, effort, love and discussions that go into these quilts not only give these women something to do every Monday afternoon, but it’s a way for them to get together and more importantly, give back.

For questions on the quilting class or to find out how you can donate material contact the Costa Mesa Senior Center at (949) 645-2356.