SCOTTSDALE, AZ — There is a lot going on at the Granite Reef Senior Center off Granite Reef Road and McDowell. Two decades of it.
"The Granite Reef Senior Center has been open since 2006. We just celebrated our 20th anniversary this year," said Jessica Rapp, the Human Services Manager at the center. "It's just a fun community center geared for seniors."
This week, they added one more activity to the list.
"Hi, my name's Mary Helen Garduno. I'm here at the Granite Reef Senior Center in Scottsdale, and the highs today will be 100," Garduno said, microphone in hand.
The whole thing was Rapp's idea. Like many ABC15 viewers, she had been watching our KidCasters segments at home. Then she started thinking.
"Well, why can't our seniors do that? They're young and fun still," Rapp said. "So let's do SeniorCasters."
So we handed them the microphone. Then we asked one question. What is your core weather memory?
The answers came from all over the map.
"The haboob. I've actually watched it. I've been in it, and I've watched it from afar," Garduno said. "So it's very, very exciting and interesting."
For Radhakrishna Jethani, the memory came from a long way north of the Valley.
"A few years back, when I was in Wisconsin, 14 inches of snow came in 48 hours," Jethani said. "We could not get out from the house."
Paul Diamond has been here long enough to remember what the monsoon looked like before the Valley filled in.
"Probably before all the development, the intensity of the monsoon storms we had,” Diamond said.
Ask him to pick a favorite storm and he will not do it.
"There's been so many. There's not really one," Diamond said. "But they're all my favorite."
Decades of weather in a few sentences. Storms they drove through. Winters they left behind. And a new skill these kids at heart have picked up in their golden years.
"A big thing in everybody's life right now is finding your purpose," Rapp said. "That's what we're here for. To help people connect with each other and help find their purpose."
By the end of the morning, Rapp sounded like she had just watched her students nail a school play.
"I'm so proud of them. I feel like a teacher or a mom today," Rapp said. "They had the courage, and they were brave, and they got up here and asked their questions."
Rapp hopes SeniorCasters spreads across the Valley, and that other senior centers get their chance.
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