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February 20, 2004/Shevat 28 5764, Vol. 56, No. 22
East Coast nostalgia
LEISAH NAMM
Managing Editor
The East Coast Social Group offers a variety of activities designed to help people make friends.
Photo courtesy of the East Coast Social Group
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Attention former East Coasters: feeling homesick? If so, the East Coast Social Group may provide a remedy.
The group, started by two New Yorkers who felt nostalgia for their former hometown, prepares to celebrate its eighth anniversary this year.
In 1996, Florence Stachel read an article in The Arizona Republic about a girl who had moved from New York to Phoenix with her mother after her father was killed by the Long Island Railroad shooter in 1993. The article, which mentioned how the mother and daughter were unhappy in Arizona, prompted Stachel to call reporter Laurie Roberts to find out how to get in touch with them. By the time the article was published, they had already moved back to New York, but Roberts provided Stachel with a list of other New Yorkers who had called her in response to the article. The New Yorkers decided to meet, and an article ran in The Arizona Republic to welcome other East Coasters who might be interested in forming a social group.
"You wouldn't believe the number of calls that we had" from the article, Stachel says. The approximately 200 people that came to the first event - held in the backroom of Chompie's in Scottsdale - varied from the "newly transplanted" to "people who have been here for ... years who were just looking for that connection," Stachel says.
The group now has an average of 160 members and offers a wide range of activities each month.
A bimonthly newsletter, edited by Phyllis Seminara, the group's vice president and one of its first members, lists a variety of activities, from hiking, tennis and golf to bridge, a book club and dining out. "We try to find different things that will appeal to different people in the group who have different interests," Seminara says.
The majority of members moved here from New York, but there are also people from New Jersey, Connecticut and Pennsylvania, and a high percentage are Jewish, Stachel says. All ages are welcome, but the average age is probably 60, she says.
"It's amazing because lots of times we have people who call who have been here for quite a few years and feel that they haven't made any friends," Seminara says. "Lots of people come and go, so people meet people and start friendships and then the people move, so it can be difficult to hold onto friends."
Seminara says the friendships she's formed through the group are the most important benefit, but she also enjoys providing a way for other people to make friends. "It makes you feel like you're doing something for other people."
Annual dues are $15. ECSG will hold its annual member picnic in April. Call Joan Edelman, 602-971-2427.
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