A smallish but festive group, which included several new members, gathered at Ability 360 to celebrate the holidays with the annual potluck, our longest running social event. Mary Stevens and her crew of merry elves had the tables decorated and the room arranged for the food.

As usual the offerings were tasty and, since extra-large plates were provided, everyone could have all they could eat on a single trip through the line. There was a pot of soup this year which I don’t remember from previous years and it was good.

The gathering was casual and members were able to move around talking with a variety of other members. And, since the room was large, there was little interference with neighboring table conversations, a treat for those of us who have a hard time filtering out background “noise”.

Jared Swerzenski, Director of Osher Lifelong Learning Institute  (OLLI) at ASU, gave a short presentation about the institute. I think many of the attendees knew little or nothing about the institute and were interested in learning about the number of different topics available and that the classes were offered at a number of different locations around the valley. Some of the courses are by Zoom.

If you missed this year’s event, too bad but you are in luck, the potluck, as did the Phoenix, will rise up again next year.

Story by Barry McNeill

Pictures by Don Doerres and Barry McNeill