Members of CALL have formed and participate in many different social activity groups. Membership is required to participate. See below for a list and descriptions of currently active groups.
Current Groups
- Biking- not meeting at this time
- Birding
- Brass Ensemble
- Knitting
- Memoir Writing and Beyond (meets year round)
- Walking- A new group starting spring of 2023
- Support Group for Men Whose Wives have Dementia- meeting at Shawnee Park Christian Reformed Church
If you would like to join a group(s), or start a new group, please notify the CALL office at 616-526-8777 or call@calvin.edu.
Each group plans its own activities and sets the times for its meetings. Participants are required to be CALL members. The leader(s) of each group will provide notices to the CALL office about the activities of the group. These updates will be shared with the CALL membership through the website, e-news, email and the monthly CALL News.
The Birding Group -resumes 2023
Come walk the woods and enjoy God's amazing creation! Bill Sweetman leads our birding interest group.
We meet at the entrance (gatehouse) to the north parking lot on the east side of the East Beltline just north of the Bunker Interpretive Center at 8:15 weather permitting. If it is raining at meeting time we will not have an outing that day.
Outings typically last about an hour and a half, unless we go somewhere where there is significant driving time, then we may be out till about noon.
We car pool and share fuel expenses with the drivers.
In some cases we walk up to a mile or two on well developed trails or roads. Our first couple of outings will likely be to Reed's Lake, since that is the season for migrating ducks and early songbird migrants. Later outings will be to places like Aman Park and the Middleville bike trail. In some cases we walk up to a mile or two on well developed trails or roads.
email bsweettours@gmail.com with any questions.
Brass Ensemble
The ensemble rehearses in the Calvin Seminary chapel on Monday afternoons. We enjoy getting together and playing good brass octet music, and we are also interested in performing on occasion.
The CALL brass ensemble has expanded to twelve members this year. There are six trumpets, three trombones, one French horn, one baritone, and one tuba. We practice on most Monday afternoons, in the Calvin Seminary chapel, at 3:30 PM. New members are invited to come and check us out at any time.
This past spring the group played at the annual CALL meeting and luncheon, as we have for several years. In addition they played at a Thanksgiving/Christmas hymn sing in Dorr, MI, sponsored by four of the churches in Dorr, and also at a Forest Hills Senior's luncheon. Occasionally they have played at a church service, the latest ones being Brookside Christian Reformed Church and First United Methodist Church.
The group enjoys getting together to play good classical music, religious music, and even some arrangements by local composers. This is a CALL Interest Group, and is open to all CALL members. If you are interested, contact Ken Huisman, 452-8812, or khuism@yahoo.com.
Knitting Group: Wednesdays, 1:00-3:00 PM
We meet in the Youngsma Building, second floor, south end in conference room YC216. The building is north of the Prince Conference Center and the large student parking lot that borders the east side of the East Beltline. See the map link on the CALL main website page and look for parking lot #12.
The normal schedule for this group each semester (October- December and February - May) is Wednesday afternoons from 1:00-3:00 p.m. in the Youngsma Building (north of the Nature Preserve on the east side of the East Beltline) on Calvin's campus. All levels of knitters are welcome to join. To learn more please contact the knitting leader, Diane Noorman, at dnoorman@sbcglobal.net or 942-0046.
Memoir Writing and Beyond
Have you taken the CALL Memoir Writing Class? Have you been writing and need encouragement to continue writing? Join us, the CALL Writing Group. We are an interest group that meets year around, every two weeks to read and discuss what each of us has written. You write what you want. If you struggle, we help. Normally, the writings are 1-3 pages, to give everyone a chance to read.
You can polish your memoir skills, branch into other family stories (and there are a lot of them once you get started), do poetry, and write fiction. We laugh, we cry, we become friends. Your personal stories are held in confidence. We do a lot more laughing than crying in case you wonder. We have a regular core of writers who provide consistency.
The leader writes a weekly note to keep everyone on the same page (pun intended), and a reminder of our meeting time. As with all interest groups, feel free to come as you are able and contact the leader of this interest group if you plan to attend or have any questions. (A map of the campus is on the main page of our website.) The leader of Memoir Writing and Beyond is Karl VanDyke at karljvandyke@gmail.com or 616-340-7527.
Support Group for Men Whose Wives Have Dementia
CALL Support Group for Men Whose Wives Have Dementia has restarted after our year-long COVID interruption. The group meets at Shawnee Park CRC, 2255 Tecumseh Drive (or behind GR Christian High). The group welcomes newcomers. If you have questions or need more information, please contact Bob DeBruin at 989-506-8873 or debruinrf@gmail.com.
The Gardening Group
This group is currently looking for a person (or a few people) to plan activities.
In the 2009-2010 year the Gardening group visited Meijer Gardens to see the butterflies and listen to a talk by Lucinda Grover. Patricia Pennell from W.M.E.A.C. visited the group to speak about native plant and rain gardens. Other meetings included a time for a plant exchange with group members and visits to member's own backyard gardens. Randy Van Dragt led the group through the Calvin Nature Center and Rebecca Shilt spoke about plants and gardens.