T-L Photo/GAGE VOTA Gloria Esposito, left, and Pat Conner spend the morning Tuesday painting and sipping together at the Martins Ferry Senior Center. The city’s senior association continues to serve older residents while trying to fill the gap left by the closure of East Ohio Regional Hospital last month.

MARTINS FERRY — Martins Ferry Senior Center’s Senior Association will be hosting primary care providers from both WVU Medicine and Trinity Health System to inform residents of all ages about the services they offer.

“East Ohio Regional Hospital shut down, and that left a lot of people in a bad situation with not having a primary care provider or not being able to get their prescriptions filled. And we’re concerned about that, so on April 18, WVU will be here at 9:30 a.m. and Trinity hospital be here at 10:30 a.m., and they’re going to bring their primary care coordinators with them and bring information as to where you can get a new primary care provider and where the offices are located,” Martins Ferry Senior Center Coordinator Melissa Finney said.

“We will also be doing a blood pressure clinic so that people can have their blood pressure checked. We are also going to assist people with teladoc appointments. If they’re not getting their prescriptions filled, they may be able to get a teladoc visit through their health insurance, which we can help them access, because the county has bought us iPads for helping people with these kinds of situations. So we’re going to, we’re trying to help fill the gap left by that hospital closure.”

She added that the event is not being held by the senior center itself because the age requirement for the center to assist people is at least 60 years old; the association can serve more people.

Finney said that the senior association is an entity of its own that is solely operated by residents who attend the senior center.

While preparing for the April 18 event, the Martins Ferry Senior Center spent Tuesday morning painting outside the lines.

The Martins Ferry Senior Center hosted a paint and sip event for older city residents that included painting wine bottles while drinking juice and tea and eating pizza.

Finney said she tries to host as many activities and events as she can for the seniors in her community to provide them the opportunity to stay active.

“Things like paint and sips are really good for their creativity, it keeps their mind going. It’s a good social activity, and it helps to create friendships among the seniors,” Finney said. “Our goal at Senior Services Belmont County is to help people to age in a healthy and happy and productive way, and keep them in their own homes for as long as it is safely possible. And so we help them do that by doing exercise programs, food distribution programs, and social gatherings.”

Martins Ferry Senior Center is under the Belmont County Senior Service umbrella along with 10 other senior centers throughout the county.

One of the other senior centers in the county is Glencoe Senior Center, which Finney invited to the paint and sip.

“Today we’re having a paint and sip with the Glencoe Senior Center. They’re our guests, and we get our seniors together with other seniors centers frequently so that they can branch out and make friendships all over the county, and when they see each other at the big events, they’re not all strangers. They get to know one another, and it’s good for them,” Finney said.

She added that in addition to events at the individual senior centers Belmont County Senior Services hosts events where all of the different centers can come together to mingle and spend the day meeting new friends.

On May 1, Belmont County Senior Services will be hosting an all center event at its office in St. Clairsville. The event is inspired by the Kentucky Derby and is called Belmont County Stakes where they will be showing horse races.

Finney said that the seniors in attendance will be given mock money that they can bet on the horses with and can use the “money” to purchase goodies from a little store at the event.