Friends Together: Drop in for fun and connection

“Activity friends” are the people with whom we share our passions for different activities, such as exercising, crafting and learning. They are one of the seven types of friends that experts say contribute to our well-being. The sharing of activities we enjoy contributes to the foundation of our health and happiness, and feeling connected is an important part of our quality of life.

You can meet your “activity friends” by taking part in Friends Together, a drop-in program of Harpswell Aging at Home and the town of Harpswell that will run for four Thursday mornings beginning Oct. 19. Coordinated by Cynthia McDougall, Friends Together will offer a wide array of activities, all held in the Select Board’s meeting room at the Town Office, 263 Mountain Road, Harpswell. Water and coffee will be available. The program is free, so bring a friend and stop by!

“Everyone has a lot of fun at Friends Together and attendees enjoy relaxing and being around kind people,” McDougall says. “It’s a great chance to get out of the house, socialize and many times make new friends. Participants like helping each other as they work together.”

Janet Alexander taught chair yoga at Friends Together last year and is returning this fall. Alexander says chair yoga makes yoga accessible to everyone. She remembers a lot of laughing last year as participants explored how their bodies can move, despite some physical challenges. They found chair yoga rewarding and fun, and many were surprised at how much they could do.

In addition to the weekly chair yoga session, there will be different activities each week. They will include seashell ornament-making with Shannon Larsen; a presentation on home safety by Harpswell Fire Administrator Mike Drake; a conversation with Amy Berube about preparing to transition to different care settings, should the need arise; and the creation of beautiful dried-flower arrangements with Becky Gallery and Tuckie Westfall from the Harpswell Garden Club. The complete schedule can be found in the full-page ad in this issue of the Harpswell Anchor.

Friends Together is a relatively new program that was started in the fall of 2022 and is back by popular demand this fall. HAH and the town are thrilled that so many people enjoyed the pilot program last year, and they are planning to run another four-week series in the spring.

Coming together with new and old friends to pursue a variety of activities provides the added value of sharing your own experience and knowledge with others, and deeper connections are made because of mutual interests. Friends Together is one more way to enhance your health. Hope we’ll see you on Oct. 19!

Questions? Please contact Cynthia McDougall at 207-522-4486 or email her at cjmcd@comcast.net.