Daily Herald opinion: The human touch: New program in Elgin takes aim at a social problem few discuss

As executive director of a senior living facility for more than half a century, Susan Cincinelli probably has had more opportunities than most of us to understand our basic need for human contact — and the emotional pain that results when we don’t have enough of it.

With that experience in mind, she has looked around at contemporary society and recognized a challenge few others have observed or emphasized. It’s not divisiveness. It’s not politics. It’s not overindulgence with alcohol, drugs or even food. It’s not selfishness or greed. It’s not too much religion or not enough of it.

It’s simple social interaction.

All those other issues, and surely many more one could name, are real, to be sure. But there is something at once uniquely personal and broadly universal about loneliness.

And Cincinelli has found an interesting way to combat it.

Club 120 is a Cincinelli brainchild getting its start at The Atrium at Oak Crest senior residence in Elgin.

“There seems to be a great lack of easy places for people to go that meet a need for simple loneliness,” ,” she told our Rick West.

Club 120 is not intended to take the place of senior centers, community social clubs, the corner tavern or countless other options available to help people mingle and share interests. But it may offer a singular environment in which people of all ages and backgrounds might, well, just hang out and enjoy each other.

“There’s no catch here. I don’t care how old you are. I don’t care what color you are or how much you earn or where you live,” Cincinelli said. “I just want you to come and share.”

Club 120 activities — which so far have included tech talks, tai chi and cooking classes and general social time — are coordinated by Community Outreach Director Leah Unser, formerly a sales manager and on-air personality at WRMN radio in Elgin. Most of the programs are free.

“Since the pandemic, there’s just so many people who aren’t doing anything,” Unser told West. “The pandemic may seem like it’s way behind us, but mentally some people are just coming out of it now.”

For information, contact Unser at (847) 742-2255 or leah@oakcrestatrium.org, or visit the Club 120 Facebook page. Whether it’s putting COVID behind us or just finding a reason to get away from television or the cellphone screen, we all need options for sharing human contact and nurturing human relationships. It will be interesting to see how a Club 120 can provide such an alternative.

“My goal is to make people aware that there is more to do than sit home alone and wish you were doing something,” Cincinelli said. “You can go out and be involved, make a connection, and feel like you belong without judgment.”