The non-profit Shipley Center is a vital element in the well-being of many senior citizens in Sequim, according to meditation teacher Jean Kipper.

“When you get to a certain age and retire, it’s almost like you disappear,” she said. “One of the hardest things things, especially if you’re new to an area, is finding people. Shipley fills a critical need for this age and stage of life.

“I really appreciate Shipley. It’s doing a wonderful job.”

Kipper is one of many teachers/activity leaders who volunteer their time and skills at the center. Activities range from chess to hula to a computer clinic and a grief and wellness group. Most are open to members of the public.

Activity fees for members are minimal, many under $5, and usually just a few dollars more for non-members.

According to Shipley representatives, some long term activities are well-attended, such as the ukulele class — whose participants fill up the big activity room. For the balance class, members say, “the parking lot is packed,” the Tai Chi class is “full on Tuesdays,” and fiber arts classes are “very popular here.”

Other classes, members say, could use more participants, either because they are new — such as creative writing and oil pastels — or rely on some past experience, such as the bridge group, or have unlimited space, such as Kipper’s online meditation class.

Creativity curated

Since February, Natasha Willow has been teaching oil pastels and imaginative writing classes at Shipley.

“I love creativity and seeing others being creative,” she said.

Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen / Natasha Willow teaches an oil pastel class at the Shipley Center on Mondays.

Willow, who taught abroad in China and Taiwan, now teaches Chinese and tutors homeschool students as well as volunteering at the Shipley Center.

Her art and writing classes alternate on Mondays, starting at 10 a.m. Pastels is 90 minutes to two hours long; cost is $3 for members and $5 for non-members. Writing generally runs 90 minutes; $2 for members and $4 for non-members.

“People can pay in cash when they get to class, or use Activity Bucks from the Shipley Center that people get for signing up for certain activities,” Willow said.

People don’t need to sign up in advance for her class, though some of the center’s activities do require pre-registration.

In the writing class, Willow said, participants are given the option to share their writing and get feedback from others.

Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen Doris Wooley (right) is a regular at Natasha Willow’s oil pastel class at the Shipley Center. Willow provides paper and a template to be followed closely or loosely. Supplies are brought by participants or bought from Willow.

“Each class I come up with a writing activity or game to do, either individually or as a class,” she said. “I also assign optional homework that students can work on at home and can bring to share in class the following session, if they’d like to.”

Willow said she likes to choose writing activities from a favorite book, “Naming the World and Other Exercises for the Creative Writer.”

She added, “We do a combination of creative writing and non-fiction writing in our class, since many of the students like to write about experiences in their lives.”

Willow said three people attend regularly.

Sequim Gazette photo by Emily Matthiessen / Participants in the oil pastel class can bring in their own materials or buy a $7 kit from from the teacher.

“I’d say eight to ten people would be a good full capacity that would work for our class, but the more the merrier,” she said.

“There are all kinds of skill levels in our class,” Willow said, “but really we are all just writers who are learning from one another and all have different strengths and weaknesses. That’s why writing as a group can be so rewarding!”

Doris Wooley is a regular at Willow’s oil pastels class.

“I come to the senior center for activities,” she said. “It’s helpful.”

Wooley said she is new to pastels.

“I was looking for a hobby, and I thought that like Picasso, I don’t want to carry around a bunch of stuff (to be able to do art),” she said.

Wooley explained that the oil pastels were invented by a French company, Semelier, for Pablo Picasso.

“Natasha is always prepared for us,” Wooley said, explaining that Natasha offers a pre-made kit for those people who don’t bring supplies. She also prepares a template to closely or loosely follow.

Past experience

Bridge has a lot of rules and communication cues, especially around bidding, which is why Earl Karich, leader of a Shipley bridge group that meets Wednesdays from 12-3:30 p.m., said the group welcomes people who have past experience in the game.

“People who played a long time ago, that doesn’t bother us,” Karich said. “They pick it up real quick.”

Bill Pampell said he just started in the last decade or so.

“We’re not what you call experts,” he said. “I just like to play bridge.”

The three women at the table have all been playing since they were young.

Pampell said the others are very helpful: “I ask their advice. If I have a good hand, I’ll bid it.”

Members of the small, jolly group said they were much larger pre-COVID and would love to have more tables at play.

Bridge is a four-person game, with one person (the dummy) sitting and observing the hand after the bidding, so seven people attending are fine, because the dummy can rotate.

Five people are fine, too, said Karich, as members will take turns sitting out, so that everyone has a chance to play. If six people show up, it is harder to keep things fair, which is one reason why Karich would like people to contact him ahead of time before joining.

Cost is $3 for members, $4 for non-members.

Shipley also has bridge with Diana Smith on second and fourth Saturdays.

Body awareness

“If you want to be of benefit to the world, give yourself the gift of your own care,” said Kipper, who teaches Basic Mindfulness Meditation every Friday morning with people showing up from 9-9:45 a.m.

She explained that she teaches a style of meditation that helps people be more tuned in to their bodies, which helps improve their lives in a myriad of ways.

Kipper said that the guided meditation she leads has no religious affiliation.

“I teach basic skills, basic awareness meditation,” she said. “It’s very, very simple.”

“If you give the gift of your attention to your body it can relax and support you and will do what you want it to.”

Kipper’s class is “of help to people with no meditation background at all,” she said, but also helpful to people with more experience.

“People attending for years say this has made a huge difference in their life as they deal with medical issues,” she noted.

“The effect is cumulative. The longer you do it the deeper and more effective it is, but it starts right away.”

Held over Zoom, Kipper’s class has unlimited enrollment, and her students drop in from places as far from Sequim as California and Massachusetts.

This class is also free of charge, sponsored by the good folks at Dungeness Courte Memory Care, according to Kipper.

“When COVID started ending, there wasn’t really a peaceful place to do it,” said Kipper, explaining that over Zoom she is able to create a quiet, clear space for people to sign into from the comfort of their own place.

Kipper recently retired from working as a certified supply chain purchasing manager and has been teaching the class for five or six years. She said that meditation, “kept me sane,” in her professional life. She has read, practiced and studied with meditation teachers for 56 years.

“I can’t imagine dealing with all our world requires of us without the basis of a source of peace in life,” she said.

To learn more about these activities and more, visit the Shipley Center’s website at shipleycenter.org, or stop by and pick up a newsletter.

To get the zoom link for Kipper’s class or the contact information for bridge, email to office@shipleycenter.org.

For more information about Shipley Center, visit shipleycenter.org/.

Seeking drivers

Since the 1990s, the Shipley Center has been organizing trips to places near and far at the lowest cost they can manage. These trips, however, depend on volunteer drivers. The Shipley Center at one point had six drivers, but the COVID-19 pandemic reduced the active drivers to two. Recently a trip had to be postponed because a driver had health issues.

Two new drivers would make a huge difference, trips coordinator Debbie Patterson said.

Volunteers must have a Commercial Driver’s License and a passenger endorsement to drive the 26 person bus. Drivers receive such benefits as free admission and a lunch allowance.

Interested parties can contact Patterson at 360-683-5883 or trips@shipleycenter.org.

For more information about Shipley Center, visit shipleycenter.org/.