Events for December 14, 2025 - December 14, 2025

Summer and salads are a match made in culinary heaven. Summer salads—including pasta, potato, and fruit salad recipes filled with fresh ingredients such as bright berries, leafy greens, and creamy goat cheese—will be standouts at your backyard barbecues and warm-weather get-togethers. The recipes that will be presented at the class are so good, your guests will be coming back for a second serving! Just in time for the beginning of the season, on Thursday, May 23, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., come learn the art of summer salad making as we walk through the process by offering a variety of recipes and samples. [...]

Roger Dames, CSSC’s Driver Fitness Coordinator, will conduct a Defensive Driving Class at The Beltrone Living Center, 6 Winners Circle, Albany, as follows: Wednesday, June 5, 2019, and Thursday, June 6, 2019, from 9 a.m. to 12 noon. NOTE: This is a two-part class; must attend both days from 9 a.m. to 12 noon. Cost is $25 per person, due before day of class. To reserve your seat, call 518-459-2857 ext. 303.

Although it is often overshadowed by Independence Day, Flag Day is still an important part of our history. It serves as a symbol of independence and national unity. On May 30, 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a presidential proclamation establishing a national Flag Day on June 14. The day commemorates the adoption of the Stars and Stripes as the official flag of the United States. It is a day to get together with others and celebrate the American flag, its designers and the designers of our country. Please join us on Friday, June 14, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. as we [...]

Please join us on Tuesday, June 18, as local multi-media artist Marjorie Ward offers a Handmade Greeting Card workshop. All supplies will be included (card stock, envelopes, decorative papers, embellishments, glue sticks, stickers and markers) so all you need to bring is your imagination. You can create as many cards as you want and even take home some extra supplies. A fee of $10 will be charged. The classes will be held in the Art Room of The Beltrone Living Center. We will be offering two separate sessions, the first from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. The second from 12:30 p.m. [...]

The journey continues on Wednesday, June 19, as we visit another sacred space. Join Diane Conroy-LaCivita as she travels to America’s first Shaker settlement, which is located in the Town of Colonie near the Albany International Airport. The well-being of this significant historical site is overseen by the Shaker Heritage Society, a local non-profit. Preservation of the Church Family site and the remaining property within the Historic District is a primary objective of the Society. The Church Family site is the heart of the 770-acre Historic District. The property includes nine remaining Shaker buildings, herb garden, open fields, apple orchard, Ann [...]

Roger Dames, CSSC’s Driver Fitness Coordinator, will conduct a Defensive Driving Class at The Beltrone Living Center, 6 Winners Circle, Albany, as follows: Thursday, June 20, 2019, from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Cost is $25 per person, due before day of class. To reserve your seat, call 518-459-2857 ext. 303.

Barbecue or barbeque is a cooking method, a style of food, and a name for a meal or gathering at which this style of food is cooked and served. Barbecuing is usually done outdoors by smoking the meat over wood or charcoal. Barbecue is practiced in many areas of the world. Barbecuing techniques include smoking, roasting,  baking, and grilling. The technique for which it is named involves cooking using smoke at low temperatures and long cooking times (several hours). Baking uses an oven to convection cook with moderate temperatures for an average cooking time of about an hour. Grilling is done over [...]

Summerfest: A Senior Community Block Party Open to the Public! Monday, June 24, 2019 Starts at 4 p.m. The Beltrone Living Center 6 Winners Circle Albany, NY 12205 518-459-2857 www.colonieseniors.org • Live Music and Dancing Enjoy Donny Elvis and the Colonie Town Band • Duck Derby Choose a duck for the duck race • Hat Contest Enter your summer hat creation • Pie Baking Contest Enter your special pie in our pie contest • Summertime Food Hamburgers, hot dogs and ice cream for purchase • Wine Tasting • Antique Car Show • Caricature Artist and much more! Admission is free. Register [...]

The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) is an American private college and culinary school specializing in culinary, baking, and pastry arts education. As part of a recently awarded grant, CSSC will be visiting the CIA in Hyde Park on Friday, June 28, for a guided tour followed by an optional lunch at Ristorante Caterina de’Medici. Space is limited. Through the grant, CSSC will cover the cost of transportation. To cover the cost of the tour, lunch, and tip for the driver, a fee of $55 will be charged to the attendees. The bus will be leaving The Beltrone Living Center at [...]

Libby Lee was a career art instructor and beloved teacher at Shaker High School. After she retired in 1983, she spent time volunteering at the Shaker Heritage Society and for the Friends of Pruyn House. The founder of the Friends of Pruyn House often asked Libby to help by sketching one of the buildings at the Pruyn House site. Libby’s sketches have been used over the past thirty-six years in letterhead, illustrations, as note paper, and in promotional materials. Her work mainly encompasses the use of watercolor. Libby was born and raised in Colonie, graduated from Pratt Institute with a degree [...]

Roger Dames, CSSC’s Driver Fitness Coordinator, will conduct a Defensive Driving Class at The Beltrone Living Center, 6 Winners Circle, Albany, as follows: Thursday, July 11, 2019, from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Cost is $25 per person, due before day of class. To reserve your seat, call 518-459-2857 ext. 303.

Your list of top things to do in the Hudson Valley has to include a sightseeing cruise on the Hudson River! Enjoy clear views of historic Hudson River lighthouses, waterfront mansions, and other notable sites. Attendees will see some of this region’s most unique and fascinating locations on the Hudson River waterfront including: • The Rondout Lighthouse and the Esopus Meadows Lighthouse • The Wyndcliff Mansion • The Dinsmore • Wilderstein • The Vanderbilt Mansion • The Col. Oliver Hazard Payne Mansion • The Rosemont • Staatsburg Other highlights of the cruise include the Kingston-Rhinecliff Bridge, the Esopus Meadows, and Mt. [...]

Eating local in New York can mean a lot of things—locally baked bread, locally grown produce, locally brewed beer. July is the perfect time of year to sample local and there is no better place than your local farmers’ market to purchase these delicacies. For example, you can find amazing produce that is tastier and healthier than anything found in a supermarket. You can meet the individuals who created the product and/or grew the produce. And you normally can experience the best “dog watching” around. Please join us on Wednesday, July 17, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. as we cook and assemble [...]

The journey continues on Thursday, July 18, as we visit another sacred space. Join Diane Conroy-LaCivita as she travels to Siena College in Loudonville. Named after Bernardino of Siena, a 15th-century Italian Franciscan friar and preacher, Siena College was founded by the Order of Friars Minor in 1937. St. Bernardine of Siena Friary, which is located on campus, is home to twenty-three Franciscan friars many of whom serve as professors, administrators, and staff members. The Grotto at Siena College is modeled after the famous shrine in Lourdes, France, where, in the 19th century, the Blessed Mother appeared to a peasant 14-year-old girl who would [...]

We hope you have a big appetite. Sure, it's July. It is hot and humid. Cooking up a pan of lasagna would make the kitchen a lot hotter. However, the smell will waft. Your mouth will begin to water and when mealtime arrives, you will have a huge appetite for a big piece of lasagna. Lasagna is a favorite Italian dish. In between multiple layers of lasagna pasta are generous amounts of tomato sauce, cheeses, and sometimes hamburger and/or Italian sausage and/or possibly a variety of vegetables. It is the favorite Italian dish enjoyed by millions of Americans. It is best [...]

On Tuesday, August 6, Tom Gallagher from Cornell Cooperative Extension will be leading an outing for CSSC to Stanton’s Dairy Farm located in Coeymans Hollow (Albany County). Stanton’s Farm is a sixth generation family operated dairy farm. The Stantons milk 900 cows and raise 700 replacement heifers. Stanton’s Farm sells an average of 22 million pounds of milk a year (that’s 2,558,140 gallons of milk!) and farms about 2,600 acres total. The dairy uses technologically advanced modern techniques to keep cows comfortable and to produce high quality milk products. The Stantons consistently work to improve their land, the health and happiness [...]

The journey continues on Tuesday, August 13, as we visit another sacred space. Join Diane Conroy-LaCivita as she travels to the Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception, the mother church of the Diocese of Albany, which is located in the Mansion District of downtown Albany adjacent to the Empire State Plaza. A young Irish architect, Patrick Charles Keely (1816-1896), who emigrated to New York in 1842 at the age of 26, was tasked with designing and building Albany’s Cathedral. Built during the period of 1848 to 1852, the Catholic Church campaigned throughout the United States and the world to raise funds to [...]

Please join CSSC as we travel to the Rivers Casino in Schenectady for a Young at Heart 55+ Monday on Monday, August 19. This trip is open to individuals 55 years of age and older and will include: $25 worth of gaming tokens, a $10 lunch voucher for the “All You Can Eat Soup and Salad at Dukes,” musical entertainment at Van Slyck’s (starting at 2 p.m.), complimentary regular coffee or fountain drink at Villa Italia, and roundtrip transportation from The Beltrone Living Center in Colonie to Rivers Casino in Schenectady. The Premier Transportation bus will leave The Beltrone Living Center [...]

On June 10, CSSC hosted our very first Chefs in Motion: Culinary Tasting and Competition The Beltrone Living Center. Ten area restaurants/chefs participated and Field Notes, a pop-up farm-to-table restaurant located at Lansing’s Farm in Colonie, came away the judges’ favorite. Chefs Kyle MacPherson and Joan Porambo have agreed to do a cooking demonstration for the public at King Thiel Senior Community instructing attendees to better understand what goes into growing the produce we use every day, by not only cooking with it, but also by being a part of the process from beginning to end. Please join us on Wednesday, [...]

Roger Dames, CSSC’s Driver Fitness Coordinator, will conduct a Defensive Driving Class at The Beltrone Living Center, 6 Winners Circle, Albany, as follows: Thursday, August 22, 2019, from 9 a.m. to 3:30 p.m. Cost is $25 per person, due before day of class. To reserve your seat, call 518-459-2857 ext. 303.

Join Colonie Senior Service Centers on Thursday, August 22, as we visit the Yaddo Gardens in Saratoga Springs for a guided tour of the immaculate grounds and hear the history of the family and their home. The gardens are situated on lower and upper terraces divided by a pergola. The lower part is more formal and reflects Italian and French Renaissance influences. The upper part is a woodland rock garden, a style that came into fashion in the late nineteenth century. Presently, Yaddo is a retreat—a space for artists to stay and create. This trip will include a fair amount of [...]

Please join CSSC on Thursday, August 29, as we venture down to the Catskill Region of New York State to experience two historic sites, the historic homes of landscape painters, Thomas Cole and Frederick Church, in addition to a wonderful winery and a new bridge walkway across the Hudson River. Attendees will experience the same iconic views of the Hudson River Valley that inspired the landscape painters of Hudson River School, a 19th century American art movement. Their famous paintings typically depicted the Hudson River Valley and the surrounding area, including the Catskill, Adirondack, and White Mountains. Premiere Transportation will be [...]

From freshly made Chèvre to ripened Camembert-style cheeses and aged Cheddar, the annual Washington County Cheese Tour will delight palates and enthrall cheese lovers of every age. On Sunday, September 8, several creative farmstead cheese makers in Washington County will open their farms to the public. Participants will be driven through lush, rolling hills and bucolic countryside. The only prerequisite is an appetite and interest in learning about and sampling award-winning local cheeses and enjoying the changing colors of our famed maple trees. At each farm, (Argyle Cheese Farmer, Consider Bardwell Farm, Dancing Ewe Farm, and Moxie Ridge Farm), guests will sample [...]

Please join us on Tuesday, September 10, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., when Chef Kizzy Williams, owner of Allie B’s Cozy Kitchen on Clinton Avenue in Albany, will demonstrate some of the wonderful southern-style soul food dishes she is known for. Established in 2014, Allie B's is named for the late Allie Bee Bethea, native of South Carolina. In the 1960s, Allie Bee brought her unique recipes and style to Manhattan and began catering and selling food on the streets of Harlem. Her daughter, Kizzy, has transplanted both her mother's recipes and her unmatched customer service and business style to the Capital [...]

The journey continues on Thursday, September 12, as we visit another sacred space. Join Diane Conroy-LaCivita as she travels to the Albany Sarang Fellowship Korean Methodist Church. Located on 23rd Street in Watervliet, the congregation purchased the building, which was the former Mount Carmel Roman Catholic Church in the city’s old Italian neighborhood, from the Catholic diocese in 2010. The group will be meeting with English Pastor Joshua Kim and will be provided a tour of the repurposed church. Please wear comfortable shoes. The CSSC shuttle bus will leave from The Beltrone Living Center at 10 a.m. and return at approximately [...]

CarFit is a free educational program designed to help mature drivers learn how well they “fit” with their vehicles. A CarFit screening is performed by two trained technicians, which takes about 15 to 20 minutes to go over the vehicle with the driver and performed with the driver behind the wheel. A CarFit event will be held on Thursday, September 12, 2019, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., at The Beltrone Living Center, 6 Winners Circle, Albany. Appointments are required. Please call 518-459-2857 ext. 303 to schedule an appointment. Event participation is free and all information is confidential.    

Please join us on Tuesday, September 17, from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., for a hands-on art workshop instructed by local multi-media artist Marjorie Ward who will introduce attendees to the medium of alcohol inks. Alcohol inks are an acid-free, highly-pigmented, and fast drying medium used on non-porous surfaces. Mixing colors can create a vibrant marbled effect and the possibilities are limited only by what one is willing to try. The workshop will be held at The Beltrone Living Center, 6 Winners Circle, Albany, with a non-refundable fee of $10. Space is limited. To make a reservation, please call Sharon Herald at [...]

Lovin’ Mama farm is a certified organic, no-till farm located in the Hudson Valley region. They grow 250 varieties of specialty vegetables, herbs, and flowers on 1.5 acres, plus a greenhouse full of microgreens. Their intensive style allows them to produce high yields on a small space. They offer floral design service in the Capital Region and beyond using their farm-grown flowers. They are committed to feeding our community nutrient-dense, delicious, and beautiful food and flowers while tending the land in an ecologically responsible way. Please join us on Wednesday, September 18, from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m., as Proprietor Corine [...]