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FEBRUARY / MARCH 2021 • MONTANA SENIOR NEWS
Making
Connections
Online
BY KATHLEEN mULROY
During the Covid19 Pandemic, many of
us are missing cherished in-person connec-
tions. So now might be the right time to try
exploring online communities, where there’s
something for just about every interest or
hobby. Here are just a few of the possibilities.
GAmES
Whether you prefer cards or board
games, it’s easy to play online. Websites
like arkadium.com offer a variety of games
that you can play with others or on your
own. Most of the games are free, but to gain
access to some of them you have to watch an
advertisement first. There are also apps you
can download on your smart phone to play
games with others, like Words with Friends.
BOOK CLUBS
Many public libraries have started up
online book clubs. Or there’s Oprah’s Book
Club 2.0 (oprah.com/app/books.html).
Oprah Winfrey’s club, which has over 37,000
members, is known for sending her picks to
the top of best-seller lists.
On the website, Winfrey offers videos in
which she introduces each book and talks
a bit about why she chose it. Then she sits
down with the author for an in-depth,
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live-audience interview. Another large
club is called, simply, Online Book Club
(onlinebookclub.org). All of the conversations
take place in forums. You can start a thread
on any topic you like or join a discussion
already in progress. There’s an app called
Bookshelves that you can use to keep track
of the books you’ve read.
The book of the week, month, and year
are all crowd-sourced, decided by member
voting. Hundreds of thousands of members
make this one of the largest self-contained
book clubs online.
For history buffs, there is The History
Book Club (goodreads.com/group/
show/8115-the-history-book-club). This
Goodreads group has around 18,000 history
fans from all over the world. They choose
one book each month, while holding lon-
ger-running conversations about single
books. Topics are wide-ranging. Not every-
one always agrees in their discussions, but
the golden rule is Always Be Respectful.
GARDENING AND NATIVE PLANTS
In Idaho, the Sandpoint-based
Kinnickinnick Native Plant Society offers
online meetings and presentations, held on
the fourth Saturday of each month (except
in July and August). There’s a link to the
meetings and presentations on KNPS’s
website (nativeplantsociety.org).
In Montana, Bozeman’s native plant
society, Valley of Flowers, will hold all of its
monthly programs for the foreseeable future
online via Zoom. The society’s website is
mtnativeplants.org. Click on the “What’s
New” button for programming updates.
mODERN SENIOR PAGE 15
COOKING
These days, there are a wide variety
of online cooking classes. One of them is
MasterClass (masterclass.com/sitemap/
categories/culinary-arts), which offers an
annual paid membership to learn cooking
Alice Waters and Gordon Ramsay.
skills from well-known chefs, the likes of
Each class consists of about a dozen or so
pre-recorded videos that range from 10-30
minutes, so you can learn at your own pace.
Another site, called Craftsy (craftsy.com/
cook/cookclasses), offers more than 100
cooking classes online—from $10 each—
in addition to crafting classes. The site
offers courses for beginners as well as more
in-depth classes, including cheese-making
and bread-baking.
PUBLIC SPEAKING
Would you like to learn public speaking
skills, or maybe just brush up on skills you
already have? Then the non-profit called
Toastmasters International might be for
you. Now you can be involved from the
comfort of your own home as an online
participant. Go totoastmasters.org and click
on “Find a Club.”
LIVE AND STREAmING SHOWS
Organizations like the Helena Symphony
(helenasymphony.org) and Myrna Loy
Theater (themyrnaloy.com) in Helena, as
well as the Seattle Symphony (seattlesym-
phony.org), are finding new ways to share
music, including allowing fans to attend
free live broadcasts at home. Even New
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