Daytime Speakers

Spanish Conversation for Cognitive Well-being Session 3

Wednesday, May 1, 2024 | 3:30-4:30pm

April 17 - May 22, 3:30 to 4:30 pm 

This course is open to students who have completed Session 2, as well as those individuals who have had some exposure to the Spanish language in the past. The class is designed to provide a stimulating and engaging environment for individuals interested in learning Spanish while promoting cognitive health. Through interactive conversation activities, this course aims to enhance mental agility, memory and linguistic skills, all while fostering social connections and cultural understanding. In this 6-week course, participants will explore daily conversational topics. Your instructor, Señora Bartlett, will guide you through various activities and exercises designed to challenge your brain, improve language proficiency and keep your cognitive abilities sharp.

Señora Carla Bartlett is a native Spanish speaker and also fluent in Italian. She has been teaching for over 30 years at the high school and Adult Education levels. She holds a B.A. from U of M-Ann Arbor and a MASTERS Art of Teaching. 

Spring into Action!

Tuesday, May 14, 2024 | 12:00-1:00pm

Raj Thangamuthu, Physical Therapist & Owner of Empower Physical Therapy 

It’s spring and you know what that means: spring cleaning! Raj will get us ready for the reaching and bending and lifting that comes with cleaning and de-cluttering. He’ll show us how to use good body mechanics when pulling and pushing different objects – all with the goal of not hurting ourselves and being able to enjoy all that the upcoming months have to offer. 

Essential Oils

Monday, May 20, 2024 | 2:00-3:00pm

Caryn Ciagne

Join us to learn about the basics of using essential oils for personal self-care and within your home. We will focus on three basic oils: lemon, lavender and peppermint and expand to cover participants’ specific health concerns and oil options to support their needs.

Participants will have two registration options: A) Includes an essential oil trio - 5 ml each of lemon, lavender and peppermint. $40 members / $45 guests OR… B) To attend for informational purposes only, the cost is $10 members / $15 guests. All participants will create a customized oil spray to enjoy at home.

Toward a Dementia-Friendly Community

Tuesday, May 21, 2024 | 1:00-2:00pm

Jim Mangi, Founder and Director of DementiaFriendly Saline, Volunteer Community Educator for the Alzheimer’s Association and a Care Partner

This talk will address the growing problem of dementia, along with positive information about dealing with it. Mr. Mangi will talk about the condition called “dementia”, and brain diseases that cause it, such as Alzheimer’s Disease. He will present typical dementia warning signs and what to do if they appear. He will also discuss evidence-based risk reduction strategies and emerging medical treatments. He will present easy, practical techniques that individuals, businesses and other organizations can adopt to make it less difficult for persons with dementia to shop, dine and enjoy all a community has to offer. 

Attention All Pickleball Players

Thursday, May 23, 2024 | 11:00-12:00pm

Doug Johnson and Sara Schuster of Foundation Manual Physical Therapy and Performance, Royal Oak

Pickleball injuries are on the rise. Learn the most common injuries players experience and ways to prevent them. Then, participate in a Functional Movement Screen (7 specific movements) to help identify areas that make you susceptible to injury. Learn tips, exercises and stretches/mobilizations to help improve those areas. 

Garden Design with Pollinators in Mind

Thursday, June 6, 2024 | 1:00-2:00pm

Jan Bills, Certified Landscape Designer, national speaker, advanced master gardener and entrepreneur

Gardening should be our love, not our labor of love! Discover how basic design practices and beneficial pollinators go hand-in-hand. Together we will develop a shift in perspective as we explore how to design with pollinators in mind. After a successful career in the corporate world, Jan Bills made a major life reassessment and followed her heart: She traded in her heels for Wellies and started the Detroit-area landscape design company Two Women and a Hoe® (twowomenandahoe.com). She is also the author of Late Bloomer.

A Visit to Eastern Europe- WWII Holocaust Sites and Issues

Tuesday, June 25, 2024 | 11:00-12:00pm

Robert E. Sullivan, Jr., Attorney and a former adjunct professor of history at Macomb Community College Tuesday, June 25 at 11:00 am Cost: Complimentary members/ $5 guests Over the past year and a half, Mr. Sullivan has delivered 16 lectures at NEXT on the History of Detroit. Last September, he visited Eastern Europe. In this presentation, he will discuss and show pictures from his visit to the Auschwitz-Birkenau Nazi death camp in Poland. This is where the Anne Frank Family, St. Maximilian Kolbe, and St. Edith Stein once resided. During World War II, the Nazis murdered an estimated 12-17 million Jews, Roman Catholics, Romanis (Gypsies), POWs, physically and mentally handicapped individuals, political opponents, Jehovah’s Witnesses, gays, trade unionists, and other groups. Mr. Sullivan will also highlight other places he visited, including the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising site, and Dohany Street Synagogue, in Budapest, site of a mass grave of more than 2,000 Jews who died from Nazi abuse. Also discussed will be the heroic roles of Raoul Wallenberg, a University of Michigan graduate, who helped save the lives of thousands of Jews, and of Polish diplomat, Jan Karski, who told the disbelieving world of the then ongoing Holocaust. He will also discuss the animosity between Hitler and Pope Pius XII, and the competing plots to assassinate each of them.