Pickerington Senior Center organizes memorable trips

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Nancy Lee, the director of the Pickerington Senior Center, keeps a tidy office as she peruses travel plans and flips through pages with her polished, pink nails – the same vibrant shade of pink as her lipstick and shirt.

Lee, 76, is beginning her 17th year working at the Pickerington Senior Center, and she manages a wide array of activities. On a typical Wednesday morning, the halls are bustling with men and women taking yoga or swarms of people walking with weights around the exterior of the building and through the nearby neighborhoods.

“Next Thursday, I have chamber in this big room, I have the foot doctor in that room and I have a seminar in the other room,” Lee says on a day in July.

Beyond these everyday activities, though, Lee is also the master planner behind a series of elaborate international excursions.

She’s taken groups to Switzerland, Austria, London, Paris, Scotland, Ireland, Portugal, Spain and China, to name a few. Lee also organizes overnight trips within the U.S. to destinations such as the Grand Canyon and the Badlands in South Dakota.

“I try to do trips that I know (center members) can afford,” says Lee. “Some can afford the $10,000 trips, and we only get two people. But some can only afford the day trips.”

This November, the Senior Center is off to Rome and the Amalfi Coast for 10 days. The travelers will experience everything from local culinary delicacies to breathtaking destinations such as the National Archaeological Museum and Pompeii. Lee has assembled a group of 10 people, six of whom have never been to Rome.

The trip ventures through the Vatican, the Roman Forum, the Colosseum and more. There are chances to learn key phrases in Italian, afternoons reserved for relaxation or private exploration, and even a tour of a buffalo milk mozzarella factory.

One of the frequent travelers is Annabelle Marion, 71, who’s a board member at the center and a retired teacher.

“My husband was a food service salesperson. He was the kind of guy who could sell an Eskimo ice. And we’d always planned to travel,” says Marion. “When my husband died, I knew that was the end. I would not be traveling.”

This was true for Marion for some time. However, things changed when she began to frequent the Senior Center.

“I started coming down here for line dancing,” says Marion. “And then I started traveling.”

Lee takes on the challenge of accommodating travelers who come alone.

“I like it when the new members get to travel, because they’ve never experienced it before and then that gets you more involved,” says Lee. “We find them roommates. If you want to go on a trip and you have no one to go with, then I’ll look on my list and see if I have anything single on there.”

For Lee, it’s crucial that individuals traveling together get along well. If you don’t get along with your roommate, it can ruin the trip, says Lee.

“Nancy has gone over, above and beyond to make sure these people are taken care of. Things are safe,” says Marion. “She’s pushed wheelchairs, she’s gone to the hospital (with travelers).”

Traveling with a group gave Marion the resources to travel and enjoy her time abroad. By 2005, Marion was off on her first trip. The destination was the Canadian Rockies.

Among Marion’s most memorable trips are that first trip to the Canadian Rockies and her trip to the Rock of Gibraltar – specifically, her encounter with the monkeys on the latter trip.

“We were at the Rock of Gibraltar,” says Marion. “There’s a cavern inside it that they’ve made into a theater, and the monkeys are everywhere.”

“When you go in the gift shop, it has signs: ‘Please close freezer door tight, monkeys will get in and steal ice cream,’” says Lee. The monkeys would also sneak away with purses to retrieve any sweet treats that had been stuffed inside for safekeeping.

Marion, who has also dressed in a vivacious pink shirt that nearly matches Lee, chuckles at the memory. Lee and Marion have become quite the dynamic adventuring duo; they frequently travel together.

“I live by myself. I am not going to drive 500 miles to see a place that I might enjoy seeing. I think it gives a lot of people who are widows or widowers the opportunity to go someplace without worrying about whether they have a spouse with them,” says Marion. “It’s an outlet for them. Otherwise, they’d sit at home.”

A wide variety of people attend these regional and international trips. Some are couples, some are individuals, some are groups of friends. 

“A lot of people just like to see the world,” Lee says. “A lot of people just like to travel.”

Hailey Stangebye is a contributing writer. Feedback welcome at gbishop@cityscenemediagroup.com.

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