“Brainstorming” workshops to strengthen the neurons at the Le Quai de Saint-Affrique social center

Laetitia Marques et les participants du dernier atelier “remue-méninges” en date. Midi Libre – M. BEAUFOUR

A memory activity for all organized by the Le Quai social center.

Pierrette, Nicole, Jackie, Claude… These four energetic and cheerful seniors enjoy brainstorming in the workshop. A proposal organized by the Le Quai social center. It all starts with attentive listening to the host Laetitia Marques. Six ladies and a gentleman play the game. The session begins with a logic exercise, a path to find on a sheet. The foreheads concentrate, leaning on the leaves.

The host reveals the answer and laughter bursts forth. "I was wrong but I corrected" s’exclaims a participant. The second work, "champions – figures and calculations" comes in two phases. The first plunges the small studious team into perplexity. These are math operations with gaps, including additions and multiplications. Three numbers are proposed to fill in the gaps. "Hey, we're not high school graduates!" teases Pierrette. "All that is far away…" note another. Everyone practices using notebooks. Here and there, a few sighs float away…

Hodgepodge and gap operations

The following activity takes the form of eight hodge-podges where the outlines of objects are superimposed. The thumbnails show one to five objects. Watering can, shovel, ice, ring, boat, suitcase, parasol on his towel… In turn, the members of the assembly give their answers. Bursts of laughter at the rendezvous! "You saw a truck, gosh…" a lady is joking. Others admit not having found it.

For everyone and completely free!

The Le Quai social center organizes two brainstorming workshops per month, in the same week. They are limited to ten people and are free. The next ones will take place on Friday June 14 and Monday June 17 at 10:30 a.m. Two more will be scheduled in July (dates to come) before resuming in September. They are aimed at people of all ages even if the dominant one is “senior”. Registration on site or by telephone (05 36 15 00 19) or via email (lequai@ville-saintaffrique.fr).

The atmosphere is friendly, many know each other, talk to each other and the U-shaped arrangement of the tables facilitates the flow of words. Laetitia, smiling and educational, moves around, looks at the cards, calls the participants by their first names… "Before becoming a host a year and a half ago, I ran the reception. This workshop is very lively, frequented by faithful" specifies the young woman. "No notes or rankings here. We come to have a good time, meet each other and make our brains work" says one of the participants.

Kiki Caron

The last activity shows six sports champions, Christine Caron, Colette Besson, Jeannie Longo, Nadia Comāneci… This involves answering questions regarding each of them. As an example, for Jeannie Longo, "the number of times I have been world cycling champion" . Answer: thirteen. Jackie explains that she "watched a report on Nadia Comneci, this young Romanian gymnast who obtained the maximum score in 1976 in Montreal when she was 14 years old. Dazzling!  How gifted she was".

Pierrette continues: "I remember, I took my children to the swimming pool when Kiki Caron, we called her that, was celebrated for her exploits. As evidenced by her astonishing record, twenty-nine times French swimming champion and silver medalist at the 1964 Olympic Games.

The end is approaching and registrations for the June sessions are being taken on site. The friends agree to choose the same day. One tries to convince her reluctant neighbor: "Come on Friday like me. It’s true that you sang in the afternoon but you have plenty of time to eat. A lovely, friendly and informative morning.