CORONA DEL MAR : An Oasis of Activities and Society

As the 12-piece Oasis Dance Band wound down a rumba, John Negus deftly twirled his wife Edie across the dance floor and slowed to a stop.

“You have to keep going when you’re 85 years old,” he said, grinning. “The reason we’ve lived so long is we do these things together all the time.”

The Neguses of Newport Beach, married for 62 years, have been cutting a rug at the weekly tea dance at the Oasis Senior Center “as long as we can remember,” John Negus said. Each Friday afternoon, they join more than 200 decked-out dancers to hoof the cha-cha, the fox trot, the samba and the jitterbug.

The dance is among more than 50 weekly events and classes at the 4,000-member Corona del Mar landmark, one of Orange County’s largest such centers, at the corner of 5th and Marguerite avenues. Seniors from Newport Beach, Laguna Beach, Huntington Beach, Costa Mesa, Irvine and San Clemente take classes ranging from tai chi to Chinese brush painting to playing the ukulele to speaking Spanish.

The center also hosts a variety of social events, including the weekly tea dances, an over-80 birthday party, pancake breakfasts, dinners for 200 and a health fair.

There are also 60 on-site garden plots for green-thumbed seniors and off-site classes in golf, water aerobics and tennis--everything, center directors say, except the stereotypical passive activities often associated with seniors.

“I’m proud to say we do not have bingo here,” said Celeste Jardine Haug, director of older adult services for the city of Newport Beach. “When you retire, you’re not going to die. You might have another span as long as the one you worked. You can’t do nothing for 40 years.”

The majority of classes, taught by retired professional volunteers or by paid teachers under the auspices of Coastline Community College’s Emeritus Program, are free. About six classes charge fees ranging from $10 to $40.

Haug said that more than 20% of Newport Beach’s population is older than 60. She said the main problems facing seniors are depression and boredom, so the center attempts to cater to everyone from the newly retired to the homebound.

“This center attracts younger seniors because we’re pretty active,” Haug said. “But nowadays, you can’t just have recreation. What you see here is just a small picture of what seniors are, the kind who reaches out. They’re not the norm, and we often don’t know what the rest are doing.

“We’re trying to serve a wider span and not forget the frail, the disabled and the non-active who need professional help.”

The center was started in 1975, when a group of Newport Beach seniors began to lobby the City Council for a social center, Haug said. Two years later, the city purchased an old private elementary school and opened a recreational center with one paid supervisor and one wing of classrooms.

Soon after, another wing was opened and a multipurpose room was built, providing a total of 17,000 square feet.

Today the center, which is being renovated to add another 5,000 square feet, is staffed with five city employees and about 300 volunteers. Volunteers, whose donated hours translate into the work of 13 full-time staff members, are the key, said Haug.

“We couldn’t do it without them,” she said. “And it’s wonderful for them too because they can continue work here that they enjoyed before. Some people don’t want to do leisure activities. They just want to keep busy.”