A look back on 2021 – Orange County Register

Another year marked by COVID-19 case counts, 2021 proved to be the second act – and hopeful, unlikely final – of Laguna Woods Village’s recuperation in the global pandemic.

Two waves of major variants, a pop-up vaccine distribution center and a tripled case count from beginning to years’ end – you be the judge on how it all went down.

But before evening out the score, don’t discount the moments of relief, such as the return of Laguna Woodstock, the Fourth of July golf cart parade and the Village Bazaar.

Let’s take a look back before fully tuning into 2022 – wiser, sanitized and better prepared.

Shots in the arm

Vaccinations became available to Orange County residents 75 and older in January, but the trek to mass vaccination centers at Disneyland or Dodger Stadium posed a substantial risk.

In the first of its kind, Village Management Services – in partnership with MemorialCare and the OC Health Care Agency – set up a makeshift clinic at Clubhouse 7 by the end of the month to distribute the shots exclusively to Village residents 75 and up.

In the first two weeks of the clinic, 5,000 residents were inoculated with their first shot in the arm. By March, an estimated 50% of residents were fully vaccinated. Just four months later,  in July, about 70% of residents were vaccinated.

Zoom zoom

Where there’s an internet connection, there’s a way. Village residents stood up to the challenge of all things digital in 2020, and they didn’t shy away from Zoom.

Far from face-to-face preferences, residents took to the virtual, often glitchy alternative modes of communication to stay in touch with friends and family, and to stay informed about Village goings-on as the Golden Rain Foundation, Third Mutual and United Mutual board meetings moved online.

Logging in, for better or worse, became second nature, but it was rarely strictly business.

Residents Zoomed into Emeritus classes, online club events, even virtual parties.

One neighborhood in the Village, the 110 Club, brought bingo to a screen for neighbors to stay connected, hosting virtual quarantine-themed bingo nights with glossy placards featuring symbols that poked fun at COVID-19-related activities. Participants jotted a dot at the draw of  “bake something,” “take your temperature” and “rearrange your furniture.”

Commemorating womanly triumphs, and those yet to come, on International Women’s Day in March, resident Cece Sloan livestreamed the annual reading of the internationally acclaimed docu-play “Seven,” which follows the stories of hardship endured by seven contemporary female revolutionaries from around the world.

Another highly anticipated event, the Video Club’s 11th annual Goldies awards in February named as the year’s top film Stephanie Brasher’s “Brig Pilgrim,” a eulogy to the Dana Point Ocean Institute’s tall ship Pilgrim, which sank in March 2020. The ceremony premiered 10 four-minute films to an audience of 52 Zoomers, and club members voted for their top picks.

Staying active

At age 85, John “Sailor Jack” Nelson put all of our excuses to bed in his “once in a lifetime” effort to walk 4,000 miles by his 86th birthday – tracking roughly 12 miles per day at one point in his pilgrimage. Nelson successfully completed his mission, walking 4,100 miles in one year, and the Village Car Club held a rally in April to honor him and other veterans.

Staying active includes activism. In April, about 30 protesters said no to hate in a rally near Laguna Woods City Hall, organized by the Village’s Democratic Club, amid a nationwide spike in hate crimes against the Asian American community. It was the first of several “Stop Hate” rallies the Democratic Club held in 2021, at times drawing members of the Village’s Republican Club.

Two days before that first rally, the Laguna Woods City Council passed a resolution to denounce anti-Asian hate crimes, hate speech and hateful acts. The council meeting was punctuated by the personal experiences of members of the Chinese American Club and the Korean American Association of Laguna Woods.

Reflecting on another event that made time stand still – the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police in May 2020 — members of the African American Heritage Club spoke of their thoughts and experiences in the first Black History Month since those 8 minutes and 46 seconds of the killing effectively flipped the narrative. In June, club members gathered  in person for the first time since the start of the pandemic to celebrate a milestone – the  designation of Juneteenth (which commemorates the emancipation of slaves in America) as a national federal holiday.

Oh, the things we did in lockdown

Members of the Publishing Club in early 2021 anthologized the surreality of an “apocalyptic” year in “Village Stories 2020,” featuring 200 pages of stories, poetry, whimsical musings and poignant observations – a souvenir encapsulating a unique time many may hastily rule best forgotten.

Residents also learned proper procedures on how to preserve timeless captures of our favorite moments stuck on film, discs, drives and floppies from Camera Club buffs and Emeritus experts. They became fosters of furry, four-legged friends courtesy of the 50-year-old Cat Club; some appreciated the reprieve from the lockdown loneliness. And they finally got to meet the elusive Jolanda, caterer extraordinaire, in a rare interview in May.

The Village reopens

Over the course of April and June, VMS CEO Jeff Parker announced that the Village would begin to reopen “slowly but surely” as Orange County graduated from the state’s four-tier tracking system that governed which businesses and public spaces could reopen.

Reservations, masks, social distancing and maximum capacity rates – 25% for “gyms and fitness centers” and 50% for “activity, business, retail and events” – were mandatory regulations in the early stages of reopening for indoor use of facilities, such as the Clubhouse 4 woodshop and art studio and the Community Center gym, which became accessible for the first time since the pandemic broke out.

The second half of 2021 became a time of firsts. The Village Library reopened its doors to residents in May for the first time since closing in March 2020, albeit with masks and social distancing required and plexiglass surrounding the front desk.

The Village Bazaar returned in early June, although as an outdoor-only event in the Clubhouse 5 parking lot – also for the first time in more than a year.

The Boomers Club, TGIF and the Rock ‘n’ Rollers held their first dances of the year in July. Other clubs started having their first in-person meetings and events since the pandemic shut them down. And Clubhouses 1, 2, 4 and 5 finally fully reopened.

The Theatre Guild put on its first in-person show in nearly two years with “Almost, Maine” in September. And the Old Pros staged its first in-person production, a radio show version of “It’s a Wonderful Life,” in time for the December holidays.

The Art Association’s Community Center Exhibit was back on in the fall, the Champagne Pops concert series came alive again with the Men of Motown at the Performing Arts Center, and the Bonanza arts and crafts fair – canceled in 2020 – returned to Clubhouse 4.

The reopening rang in some favorite festivities: the Memorial Day parade May 31 and the Fourth of July golf cart parade, breathing in a renewed nuance of independence to the traditional celebration amid current events.

The Garden Centers Club’s Farmers Market in July sold out its produce in less than two hours, raising $1,600 for charity. And the Boomers’ Laguna Woodstock festival drew hundreds of music lovers in September.

Saying goodbye

The Village lost a community leader in GRF Director Bert Moldow, who died in May.

Moldow was described as the “forward thinking … driving force” who implemented energy-efficient technologies around the community, such as the Third’s long-lasting LED lighting, which saves about $50,000 for the mutual per year, and the 12 solar panels installed atop three-story buildings that see about a 5% return, projected to increase over time.

Also lost last year was Margaret Pearlman, who was honored as one of seven 2021 “Women of Distinction,” recognized for her service and leadership in the community. Pearlman died in November at age 102.

Fee hikes

Residents across the Village were affected by a spike in GRF assessments, which increased by $11.90 – or 5.8% – and are now active, as voted in a September budget meeting. This brought the total GRF assessment for Third and United Mutual members to $217.50 per manor per month.

Third Mutual members got hit the hardest in July when the initiative to amend Article XI, Section 1 of the mutual’s CC&Rs, which would have allowed the board flexibility to control the impact of soaring property insurance premiums, did not pass – raising assessments by $93 per manor per month.

“This is a sad day for our community,” Director Lynn Jarrett of the Third Mutual board said in an email at the time. “I feel so sorry for the residents who will not be able to afford this increase. They are going to have to make some tough decisions.”

And so it ended

The year ended with an unexpected twist in the announcement of a new head of management services. In November, VMS CEO Parker shared his plans to retire at the close of his three-year contract in February. Siobhan Foster, who has been serving as chief operating officer at VMS for four years, will succeed Parker at the helm.

Also late in the year, Villagers learned that they would have to start recycling organic waste, as mandated by California Senate Bill 1383.

And because of the ubiquitous omicron variant and holiday COVID-19 case count resurgence, conditions in 2022 harken back to the four-tiered reality with a deja-vu mandate to mask up indoors through Jan. 15.