Activities

Art Classes

Pocket Billiards (Pool)

The two 5' x 9' pool tables in the Annex Building are pretty heavily used most weekday afternoons when four to ten play from :00 to 4:00 pm in season. We normally play 8-Ball and, with four or more, we play partners and usually switch partners after two games. To keep things consistent, we play by the Rule Book (Billiard Congress of America). This avoids arguments.

Play is restricted to residents and their guests. For the protection of tables, there is an age restriction of 15 or older. Pool is a game not restricted to males only; Some women are very good and enjoy the game.

Play in the evenings is permitted but remember that our electronic door locks will not allow entry after 10:00 pm.

We try to keep the tables in good repair - brushing, vacuuming, etc.

Contact: Harry Nuzum

Bingo

Bingo is played every other Friday from 7:00 to 9:30 pm in the Clubhouse for residents and their overnight guests.(Be there at 6:30pm to buy your cards.)

The game is straightforward. To play you must buy a minimum of three hard cards (cost: $ 1.00 each). Sixteen games are played on these cards. In addition four games are played on "paper specials" (cost: 2 for $1.00). The revenue from selling cards and specials is used for prizes.

Coffee and cookies are served during intermission.

Contact: Sophia Furgasso

Bowling

Looking for a fun afternoon? Come join us at the Woodside Lanes on Radio Road every Tuesday during Season. We are looking for anyone interested in bowling, either full time, or as a substitute, so individuals, teams (4 people) or substitutes are welcome. We are not a sanctioned league and just bowl for the fun of it so no worries if you can't bowl the entire season.

Contact: Tamara Weiten

Riviera Readers

If you're an avid reader and want to meet others like yourself to talk about what you read, then join this group of residents who meet monthly during the season to do just that.

Among the books selected have been: Brave Enemy by Robert Morgan, Light in Snow by Anita Shreve, The Glass Castle by Jeanette Wells, Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini, and Memory of Running by Ron McLarty.

Contact: Kay Ball or Jan Dixon

Bridge

We have quite a few bridge players at Riviera and so we have games at the clubhouse four days a week for everyone. All games are fun - the duplicate and the social. Take your pick. Sign-up sheets are posted on the bulletin board but partners are available if you ask the contact person.

The Friday Duplicate Game is held in afternoon and is scored by computer with results available the next day. The game usually start at noon and ends at about 4 pm with a snack break in the mid afternoon. There is an initial lifetime membership fee of $5.00. The game fee is $1.00. Partners are available. Prizes are awarded to top scorers.

Winter contact: Edmun and DonaRae Rutherford
Summer contact: Gladys Womble

The Tuesday Duplicate Game is held in evening and is also scored by computer with results available the next day. It starts at 7:00 pm and ends at about 10 pm. The fee for a game is $0.50. Prizes are awarded to top scorers.

Contact: Larry Larkin

The Wednesday Social Game in the Clubhouse starts at 1:00PM and runs until about 4PM with no snack break. A 50 cent fee is charged which funds the prizes.

Contact: June Tinius

Chorus

Riviera Chorus began singing during the l980's. Today we are a group of mixed voices, male and female, numbering twenty-five or more. The only skill one needs to bring to the group is a love of singing, and a willingness to practice regularly and hopefully learn. Generally we sing seasonal music, in SAB (soprano,alto,baritone) or SABT (soprano, alto, tenor and bass). Occasionally we do music written in unison (the melody or tune of the music).

Generally, we do two concerts each year consisting of chorus and some audience singing, and a few solos:

Mid-December, a Christmas concert of best loved carols, anthems, and pop Christmas music. These concerts are always on Mondays at 7:30p.m.

A Spring concert of best loved pop, oldies and sometimes contemporary music. This concert is normally scheduled for the Monday, after Palm Sunday so to catch part time residents before leaving for the North.

After each concerts collection baskets are set out for those who wish to contribute a little to help defray the cost of new music. Also a repast of coffee and finger foods contributed by chorus members and friends is enjoyed by all.

Practices begin mid-October. always on Monday evening from :00 to 9:00p.m. or earlier, never later. After Christmas concert practices resume mid-January, same time, etc. The newsletter carries exact dates, days and times of practices and concerts.

Choristers do all this for no reason other than their love of singing. Of course out of all this comes a love of each other, and respect for all levels of talent.

Come join us for the fun of it. Non residents are also welcome.

Contact: Joan O'Donnell, Director

Computer Club

The Riviera Computer Club is an organization of members who range from the Novice Level to the Expert Level in using a computer. We meet twice a month on the 2nd and 4th Mondays of each month (About 3PM-check the Newsleter). The General Meeting is held on the 2nd Monday and consists of a short review of things we are doing and procuring ideas of things we want to do followed by a period of general computer information along with solving your computer problems. The meeting held on the 4th Monday is a scheduled period of helping the members to learn more about their computers and the programs that are executed on them. Residents of RGE are urged to join with this group to further their knowledge of what the computer can do for them and the unlimited possibilities of how their life can be made easier by letting the computer do the work for them. Membership can be had by paying a fee of $15 for an individual and $20 for any household. Dues should be paid by check and made out to Riviera Computer Club to include the applicants EMAIL address. They can then be mailed to Acting Treasurer Herb Noren, 138 Estelle Dr, Naples FL 34112.

Through the graciousness of the Board of Directors Wi-Fi Wireless Broadband 802.11g has been installed in the main RGE Clubhouse and is always on and available to all residents and their houseguests to access the Internet. Club Members are invited to bring their laptops to the meetings so that when instructions are given in solving a particular problem they are able to duplicate the action on their own computers. Come Join Us.

Dwight Kehoe, President

Convertible Club

Exercise Class

The Aerobics Class meets on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays from 9:00 to 10:00 am in the Annex. Weights and bands are used. Excercies include stretching, aerobic, conditioning and walking.

Contact: Rita Shaughnessy

Genealogy Club

Hosted by DeAnn Leonard this group first learns and then practices the methods used in Genealogy which is the study of family history.

Meetings are usually held on the second Monday of each month, October through April (excluding December), from 1:00 to 4:00 pm at 101 Champagne Court.

The October and November meeting are dedicated to getting started by learning where information is located and how to develop pedigree charts.

The remaining meetings at the beginning of year are dedicated to individual research where members share methodolgy and information about places on the internet where data can be gathered at no charge and at a cost.

Contact: DeAnn Leonard

Library

When you're "over 55" you have more time to read, and read we do here at Riviera. Not only do we have a reading group - see Riviera Readers - but a very large library of fiction and non-fiction hard and soft covered books. They occupy 11 feet of shelving, 5 shelves high for total of almost 1,000 volumes. An average of 10 additional books arrive daily as donations! Can you imagine?

Mary Ann Crowley occupies this important position. She keeps track of the flow of books, discarding the torn and tattered volumes and passing the duplicates to charity libraries. It's a job that requires work three to four times a week.

Contact: Mary Ann Crowley, Susan Larson, Rose Piccininni, or Shirley Romano

Men's Club

The Men's Club at Riviera is unique in that it limits itself to three kinds of activities:

First, it holds monthly luncheon meetings which a hundred or more men usually attend. Not only are the food and drink great but the speakers who are active in Collier County politics, news media, professional sports or Naples history provide an inside view that keeps our residents abreast of the current county affairs. For the $5.00 charge for both, it's a bargain. We even provide door prizes.

Secondly, the Club organizes a variety of recreational activities such as bus
trips to baseball games, fishing trips on Gulf of Mexico, hockey games, racing at the dog track, day trips on a gambling boat, and a number football pools.

Finally, the Men's Club provides service. For example in December, the Club usually organizes a Pancake Breakfast which has an admission price of one new, unwrapped, Christmas toy which is sent to the Immokalee Friendship House. In February, a Ladies' Night provides a show of appreciation, through dinner and entertainment, for all of the support which the men receive and enjoy, individually and collectively, from the RGE women.

All men are welcome! Lifetime membership costs $10 and the monthly lunch fee is $5.

Contact: Dwight Kehoe

Pinochle

The Pinochle group meets all year round on Thursday night at 7:00 pm. Chip in 50 cents and come away with a million. About 10 to l5 people show up regularly and have been doing it for years. Contact: Henrietta Ruppert

Euchre

The card game of Euchre is played on Wednesday nights at 7 PM in season. We have about 12 to 15 players and everybody is welcome to play or learn. You can't win a million dollars at the end of the evening for coming in first or last, but for your fifty cents you'll have fun and maybe you'll win enough for a couple of Lotto tickets. Contact: Tony Romano

Then there's Poker. Contact: Andy Gosselin

Sunshine Girls

The Sunshine Girls is a ladies' singing group here at Riviera Golf Estates devoted to the "barbershop style" of 4-part harmony. Tenors, Leads, Baritones and Basses make our kind of music!

We meet once every week for rehearsal and look forward to entertaining at various functions. We have performed for our Ladies' Luncheons on occasion, the Men's Club and private parties.> Local nursing homes always enjoy our programs and lively "sing-a-longs", too! On Valentines Day, we travel about the community and beyond to deliver "singing Valentines". Residents here at Riviera Golf Estates arrange in advance for us to sing for their loved ones and special friends or shut-ins! On February 14, 2006, we sang at eleven different homes...What fun for us to bring "Sunshine" to so many!

We currently have twelve members, but would love to welcome even more. If you like to sing and can "carry a tune", think about joining The Sunshine Girls.

Contact: Ellie O'Brien

Aquatic Exercises

Bocce

Bocce is an old world game from Italy (In France it's called petanque.) which has its beginnings in Ancient Rome. A large ball - a bit larger and heavier than a "softball" - is rolled a distance of about 25 to 30 feet toward a golf-size ball that had initially been thrown by a player. The purpose: to get close to the small ball. The second player - from the other team tries to get closer or tries to hit the opponent's ball away.

The Bocce group here at RGE generally meets 9:30AM Mondays. See the Calendar of Events.

Contact: Chase McQuade

Golf

Florida is Golf country and our community surrounds a nice chunk of it, the Rivera Golf Course.

The golfing men play regularly on Mondays and Wednesdays in (winter) season and even have time for a monthly luncheon as well. During the summer they explore some of the other courses.

The Women's Golf League voted in the fall of 2005 to suspend its official play until the fall of 2006 because of hurricane damage to the golf course etc. A group of ladies plays 9 holes, though, on Mondays and the League continues its regular luncheons on the last Tuesday of the month.

Shuffleboard

Swimming

With a large heated pool, 30 x 60 Feet, swimmers, and floaters, talkers and children (on holiday) have plenty of water to keep them delighted.. The depth starts shallow - about three feet and graduates to the deep end, about eight feet.

You can find the lap swimmers doing their thing very early morning, around noon, and late afternoon. One mile is equivalent to 44 laps. A lap is going from one end of the pool to the other, - turning around - and going back to the other end. 22 laps = one half mile, and 11 laps = one quarter of a mile.

Tennis

RGE has two "hard" courts maintained in reasonably good condition which are used weekly by the Men's and Women's Leagues. Skill levels vary and residents and their guests are welcome.

Both leagues play 4-game sets (doubles) and switch partners after each set. Playing time is generally about an hour and a half.

The Men's League members ( in season 7 to 9 ) play on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays. They meet at 7:15 am and start to play around 7:30. On rare occasions when 12 or more show up, 4 will usually play at the County courts on Thomasson Drive. Next year, in January and February, the men are likely to start later when the temperature is warmer.

The Women's League members ( in season 5 to 6 ) play on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, also meeting at 7:15 am and starting to play around 7:30.

In summer the men and women combine and play mixed doubles.

Yoga

Yoga means "union" of mind, emotions, body and spirit and has been practiced for centuries. The Art of Yoga is to produce physical and mental well-being! It is a total body workout that increases energy, flexibility, strength and muscle tone while promoting relaxation and stress reduction. The positions are done slowly and deliberately. It is noncompetitive! You progress at the pace your own body takes you.

Wear loose, comfortable clothing and have bare feet. Do not wear any jewelry and allow at least 1 to 2 hours after a meal before beginning the workout. You will need to bring a nonslip mat....a cushion or pillow.....and a belt, tie or strap. We meet in the Annex Building Gym on Monday nights from 7-8PM.

Contact Bobby Schweikert