The Amelia Gathering Room: Exploring New Opportunities

In June, when Kendal at Granville residents celebrated the end (well, almost the end) of the two-year Phase II construction project, we also dedicated our new assembly venue, the Amelia Gathering Room. The celebration and dedication were absolutely in order. For thanks to this new room, Kendal at Granville now – at last! – has a facility large enough to accommodate the entire resident population of the campus. And since the room is equipped with both a stage suitable for larger performance groups and an advanced audio-visual technology system, the Entertainment Committee is already working on lining up various singing groups, theatrical troupes, and musical ensembles for the entertainment of residents.

I should add that the Amelia Gathering Room was confirmed as part of the Phase II construction plan only after it became clear that it was feasible to meet the cost of the room through dedicated gifts from friends and residents of Kendal; and the facility was in fact named at the request of a generous and anonymous donor in honor of someone close to the donor.

In the weeks since June we have already begun to taste the opportunities the Amelia makes available to us. Take these three examples:

In July the Kendal at Granville Residents Association was able for the first time to hold its monthly meeting in a room large enough to accommodate anyone who wanted to attend. By no coincidence, the meeting drew the largest crowd of residents in the history of the association. Sure beats the older room, where space was tight and chairs a bit uncomfortable. And fuller attendance will allow more residents to be actively engaged in Kendal activities.

Later in July about a dozen members of the Licking County barber shop quartet organization gave us a concert. It was a happy evening, with richly-harmonized barber shop favorites, a few novelties, some good sentimental stuff, and a patriotic song or two – a menu to please the taste of almost anyone. Some singers were rookies, but at least one veteran was in his 53rd year of membership. The Amelia Gathering Room rocked!

Just a day later the men's breakfast club met to receive instruction in the martial arts – not perhaps active and physical instruction, but educational and illuminating demonstrations. Three practitioners of martial arts, one of them 78 years old and all associated with a studio in nearby Newark, showed us a variety of "exercises" (I'm not quite sure what the proper term is, but they all involved quick movements and sudden shouts), told us a bit about the complicated history of Asian martial arts, and explained how some of the differences among, say, Taekwondo, Judo, and Aikido arose. I left quite persuaded that, whatever else might be said about the lessons of the demonstrations, practitioners of martial arts are in impressively good physical shape.

So what else can the Emilia Gathering Room be used for? Well, this coming Sunday two residents, Judy Chambers and Arie Janssens, will be getting married. That's a first for Kendal – a marriage that unites two residents. And the grand occasion offers us another first – the inaugural wedding reception for the new gathering room. Everyone is invited and there's room for everyone to attend.

Exploring new opportunities indeed!