Sam Dunaway | News Editor

Sparkling prom dresses and classy tuxedos paid a visit to the Monmouth Senior Center on May 26. The second annual sock hop, hosted by Western’s Psychology Club and Gerontology Club, gave seniors the opportunity to dress up and hit the dance floor.

The theme for this year’s dance was ‘Spring Fling Senior Prom,’ encouraging community members to break out their prom attire and join in on the fun. Of course, a prom is incomplete without the crowning of prom king and queen, as well as tiaras and crowns for the winners.

Haley Morris, Psychology Club president, was involved in planning the Valentine’s Day sock hop in 2017. The organization was looking to get more involved with the senior center and jumped at the opportunity to help the Monmouth community.

“It’s cool getting more college students in the community and not just on campus,” Morris commented. She explained that many students go through college focusing on how their education will benefit themselves and not necessarily how they can help others.

“Maybe they see Monmouth as being pretty small and they don’t see a way of benefiting the community, but there’s a lot of different ways that people can reach out and the senior center is one of those ways,” said Morris.

Last year’s sock hop was such a success that the Gerontology Club decided to get involved in the event. Lila Gardner, co-president of the Gerontology Club at Western, is a gerontology major, herself, and has always enjoyed working with older adults. When elected president of the club, she had several goals that she wanted the organization to accomplish.

“I wanted us to be really involved with the Monmouth community,” Gardner explained. The club hosted Careers in Aging Week in April and several events educating the community about aging and working with older adults. Since then, the organization has been focused on outreaching to the Monmouth community.

“This term has been really focused on interacting with our older aging community and really making sure that we’re creating a better quality of life,” said Gardner. “There’s some places in Oregon that doesn’t have a senior center and (don’t) focus on quality of life for older adults and that’s something I think our club officers are really adamant about.”

The sock hop is just one way that the Psychology and Gerontology Clubs are reaching out and using their fields of study to benefit the community.

Morris expressed, “I think it’s becoming a community event and people are looking forward to it so I really hope it continues.”

Contact the author at journalnews@wou.edu

Photo by: Paul F. Davis