In addition to well-established organizations with long histories of bringing people together, new groups are cropping up everywhere aiming to help mature singles regain a social life, expand intellectual horizons and enhance their sense of self. You can fill your mailbox with newsletters, fill your calendar with appointments and make new friends. While some of these groups are general and purely activity-oriented, others focus on the changes that come with suddenly being single after years in a relationship. Fourteen years ago, Jack Ploscowe was single and searching for other singles who might be stumbling, as he was, around the community. As Ploscowe aged, so did the group, although today both are holding firm at 49.
Most people join the Mid-Peninsula group to meet others in circumstances similar to their own.
Ploscowe admits the possibility of finding that special someone hovers in the back of most single people's minds. First, however, they have to get over the fear and anxiety that surround socializing as an unattached person, he says. And for many, groups are a safe, reassuring setting in which to start. They are ill-equipped to socialize in the singles world. Although sometimes relationships develop within the group, Ploscowe says he is not a matchmaker, nor is he very encouraging about marital prospects.