On July 22nd, our Leonard Covello Older Adult Center hosted a free Bone Health Screening and community lecture in collaboration with the National Council on Aging and NYC Aging . Dr. Erlin J. Marte walked our members through osteoporosis risk, prevention, and how to talk to their doctors about bone health.
Above and Beyond: Louella Streitz
Long before Louella became a member of the Carter Burden Network, she was already showing up for her community. While working with local doctors, she saw firsthand how many older adults were falling through the cracks, overlooked, and often isolated. When CBN came into her life, she jumped in.
“Older adults are a passion of mine,” she says. “They're such a neglected group. Even just sitting with someone — that alone makes people happy.”
A Roosevelt Island resident for more than 30 years, Louella has been part of the CBN family since 2016, first as client and now as a volunteer and community leader. She now runs our free tax site, helping members file more than 300 tax returns each year, at no cost to them.
Cooking is her other great love. Louella teaches cooking classes that introduce members to foods they might never have tried, bok choy, rare grains, and more. She recently published a cookbook, Gathering inspired by those very classes. When she isn't in the kitchen, she's likely in the garden.
“She genuinely cares. We need that in a senior center where community and connection are key for older adults to thrive as they age”
That's how Roosevelt Island OAC Director Lisa Fernandez describes Louella: intriguing, effervescent, bubbly, positive, and always full of new cooking ideas.
Boli Turns 102!
Bolivar “Boli” Bajana Moran just turned 102, and at Carter Burden Network, that is very much a reason to dance.
The celebration at our Leonard Covello Older Adult Center in East Harlem had all the makings of a proper Boli birthday: cake, music, dancing, and a room full of the family and friends who have watched him become something of a neighborhood legend.
Above and Beyond: Bill Dionne
After 36 years as Executive Director of the Carter Burden Network, Bill Dionne has retired. He leaves behind a legacy in the thousands of older adults whose lives he touched, one lunch table at a time.
We asked members from our newly minted Bill Dionne Luncheon Club what Bill meant to them. Here's what they told us.
