GOSHEN – Retired nurse Marie Calderone has spent her life witnessing falls and seeing the impacts – events that for those over 55 can be fatal. But this phase of her life is about balance.

“I wanted to be on the end that was positive,” she said, as she transitions from helping people recover from falls to doing what she can to prevent them.

The Goshen resident, who spent her career as a gerontological clinical nurse specialist, has launched a Healthy Bones and Balance program to her community. Going on its second month, the program already averages around 20 attendees on Tuesday mornings in the newly renovated John James Memorial Town Hall, where this past Tuesday she could be found leading the program.

The routine she puts her students through is clinically proven to reduce falls while increasing mobility, strength and balance. She had participants doing sitting squats, attempting lunges, and balancing on a single foot, all while they count their reps in sync with each other – a practice Calderone commented makes the time go by fast.

The Healthy Bones and Balance program is free to all participants, and is designed for those 55 and up. It is a nationally proven model that is frequently a staple in senior centers throughout the region.

But the town of Goshen doesn’t have a senior center. So while Calderone has done her part to make the program come to life, having received four months of training and certification to lead the course, she also commended her “village” for gathering the needed resources.

“Nurses don’t usually ask for things,” she said. “We are usually like, ‘OK, what do you need?”

But asking for help has paid off, she said, as various community members have responded with help and support.

While the Retired Senior Volunteer Program provides the necessary weights and exercise balls, Calderone still needed a space and some chairs.

Chairs sturdy enough for the course were donated by Exhibit A brewery in Williamsburg and 1812 Paint and Body in Florence. She thanks town officials for being accommodating in letting her group utilize the town hall’s gathering room. These, among other things like getting storage for equipment, have been done with the help of community support, she said.

Calderone explained that throughout her career she has witnessed falls and their severe consequences, including hip fractures, shoulder damage, or even head trauma – all of which can be fatal. After retiring she attended the program herself, and last year she felt inclined to get certified to lead it.

The class includes exercises to increase leg muscle strength, improve balance coordination, enhance peripheral vision, and develop flexibility and grip strength.

“The reward from teaching is when they apply it,” she said, and highlighted how many have utilized the maneuvers and strength techniques to avoid falling during regular life.

Joanne Kelliher, who has been doing Healthy Bones and Balance for two years in other communities, said that the program, while it hasn’t necessarily made her stronger, it has prevented her from falling.

“I haven’t fallen,” she said Tuesday at the class. “I feel like my balance is probably better.”

And just as important as the course, for Calderone and many participants, are the light refreshments prepared for after the program – part of the program’s “supportive” ethos which many commented is just as important as health – especially in the cold of the winter with limited things to do and ways to be active.

For instance Kelliher drives her friend Lorinda Luce, and Mary Montague said about the still forming group that, “there is a good crowd here, a good attitude.”

Many of those there in the Goshen Town Hall, like Kelliher, had picked up the exercise routine at other senior centers in the hilltowns. The Tuesday gatherings 9:30 a.m. in Goshen add just another opportunity for participants to attend as the program, which is also offered in Worthington, Williamsburg and Cummington.

In Worthington, HPP takes place on Wednesddays at 1 p.m., Williamsburg hosts HPP four times a week, on Mondays at 1 p.m., Tuesdays at 3 p.m., and Thursdays and Fridays at 9:30 a.m. Cummington holds its program on Mondays, Thursdays and Fridays from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m., and Tuesdays from 3 to 4 p.m.

To register for the Goshen class, email golivewell4ever@gmail.com.

Samuel Gelinas can be reached at sgelinas@gazettenet.com.