Unlike the room’s usual appearance as a town trustees’ meeting room with an orderly arrangement of chairs and meeting table with piles of paperwork, the Town of Lake City’s Armory multipurpose room was transformed into a lively bistro of sorts last Friday morning for the long-anticipated opening of the Senior Connections’ Senior Center.
Chairs were drawn up to tables with red checkered tablecloths dotted about the room inviting guests to pause for conversation while perhaps imbibing from a fully stocked coffee bar and partaking of snacks which, for the center’s opening last week, included freshly baked banana bread. Also of interest were the room’s non-edible accoutrements, a cache of neatly stacked and intriguing boxed board games and puzzles which await closer inspection.
Looking out over the room and mingling crowd with satisfaction last Friday were staunch proponents of expanded senior citizen services in Lake City, including the newly furnished senior center which will be open with regularly scheduled hours on a year-round basis.
On hand and glowing with satisfaction on Friday were Senior Connections volunteers such as Cheryl Tate, Lonnie Sweet, and Mary Nettleton, all of whom have been putting in long hours since January with the envisioned goal of not only a well-equipped and vitalized senior citizen center but also an impressive array of expanded senior citizen services.
Also, on hand last week celebrating the opening of the new Senior Center was staff from Silver Thread Public Health, including public health director Tara Hardy who is equally enthused with new developments in terms of senior services.
Working in tandem with Silver Thread Public Health and a direct result of the enthused Senior Connect Team volunteers, the Senior Center in the town trustees’ Armory meeting room is now open 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. Fridays August 9, 16, 23, and 30 through this month and increasing to both Wednesdays and Fridays starting in September.
Additionally, team members are working with Mountaineer Movie Theatre owner Phillip Virden on a no-charge Senior Movie Night at 7 p.m. Tuesday, August 20, featuring the John Wayne Western classic, “True Grit”. Senior Walking is also planned in the Armory from 2 to 3 p.m., Tuesday through Friday starting in September.
Home cooked lunches, either sit-down or grab & go, or the potential of deliveries to homebound residents, will resume the second and fourth Fridays in September. Specifics of the luncheon meals are still being worked out, although the new Senior Center will remain the central focus with sit-down meals on those Fridays served 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m., together with the grab & go or home delivery options.
A series of informative lectures are also being lined up for Senior Citizens, including Gary Shondeck of Gunnison-based Shondeck Financial Services & Insurance who has offered to come to Lake City on Friday, October 4, starting 10 a.m. for a presentation which will include details on changes to Open Enrollment for Medicare Part D. Shondeck will also be available to work with individuals.
Other potential lecture topics sponsored by the group may include the popular topic of taxes by a knowledgeable accountant and an attorney who will be invited to address local seniors on legal documents such as wills and Do Not Resuscitate directives.
During a sit-down interview with Senior Connect Team members Cheryl Tate and Lonnie Sweet prior to last week’s Senior Citizen Center opening, Tate marvels at literally thousands of volunteer hours which have been expended toward the revitalized services for Senior Citizens ages 60 years and up who live within Town of Lake City and adjacent rural portions of Hinsdale County.
Referring to the volunteerism spirit, Tate says, “It truly takes a village… if the result of all this effort is the way we envision it, it will have been well worth it.”
Tate credits the town and county senior citizens for their energy and determination. “They all have great ideas,” she says, “and they’re energized.”
Senior services in Hinsdale County are under the umbrella of Silver Thread Public Health, Tara Hardy expressing her gratitude for the re-energizing efforts of the “grassroots” group.
Public Health has several staff openings and continuing through this month will be reviewing applications for the positions of a Senior Citizen Coordinator, who will be available to assist with the Senior Connections group, as well as a second position handling consumer protection which is also being filled.
Work by the volunteer Senior Connect group dates to January this year when a group of concerned local residents —these including Cheryl Tate, Lonnie Sweet, Lori Lawrence, Rick Hernandez, Faye Underwood, Mary Nettleton, Dan McGee, and Dawn Kortmeyer — put their heads together with the goal of addressing the needs and wants of the local senior population which they felt were not being met.
The grassroot organization’s first goal was to peruse the county’s voter registration lists and determine the number of seniors living in the county. From a list of 723 voters, they determined fully 52 percent of the registered population is age 60 years and over or, more broadly 60 percent of the county’s registered voters are over age 55.
The next step, according to Tate and Sweet, was to contact existing seniors’ organizations in other regional communities such as Silverton, Creede, Saguache, and Nucla/Naturita to learn what services they offered in terms of senior centers and senior lunches and, just as important, their sources of funding to support the programs.
With that information in hand, Tate says they scratched their collective heads, wondering, “what do we do now?”
An important early addition to the corps of grassroots local volunteers was enlistment of an energetic, non-senior, Hinsdale County Commissioner Greg Levine, who was an enthusiastic addition to the group.
Levine’s enthusiasm and talents “are invaluable,” Tate says. It was at this point pre-spring this year that the volunteer group was also expanded to include Tara Hardy of Silver Thread Public Health.
It was through casual conversations with Town of Lake City Recreation Director Ben Hake that the suggestion was made for use of both the kitchen and adjacent town-council meeting room in the Armory. While occupied for town meetings on a routine basis, the multipurpose room was otherwise unoccupied on Fridays.
When contacted, town representatives were enthusiastic to allow use of the room for the Senior Citizen Center, together with use of the Armory kitchen facilities, on a no-charge basis.
Other early donations to the local citizens’ effort came from Hinsdale County, which set aside $5,000 through year’s end 2024 to assist with operational costs toward senior meals. Other donations — termed “responsible for getting us off the ground” came from Christian Community Services and Tri-County Health in Montrose.
On the horizon as a potential for future funding sources include a grant application for Federal funds through the Next 50 program, as well — closer to home — Lake City Medical Center Endowment Fund, Pioneer Jubilee Women’s Club, Lake Fork Community Foundation, San Juan Solstice and, of course, private donations.
Levine volunteered to head up an informal telephone survey in which upwards of 150 local residents age 60 years and over were queried with specific questions starting in late February and continuing through April.
Answers to those questions were revealing and serve as a guide for the ultimate goals of the grassroots organization. The ability for increased socialization opportunities was frequently cited in the telephone survey conducted by Levine, this in turn lending credence to the central goal of equipping a Senior Center.
Frequently cited among nearly 100 percent of respondents noting the need for increased socialization opportunities was the desire for dancing and opportunity for shared outdoor activities, art classes, board games, puzzles, and Bingo, crafts, and technology classes.
Other insightful responses from the senior survey in addition to socialization were the desire for meals, including the occasional need for scheduled transportation assistance to Gunnison for medical appointments, medication pickup, and other requisites such as groceries; subsequent comments received by the group indicate a willingness by seniors for help when it comes to housekeeping and household chores, as well as snow shoveling.
Last Friday’s Senior Citizen Center opening was just the latest in a series of public outreach endeavors which Senior Connections has hosted this summer. A Senior Connections’ kickoff event was held at Baptist Fellowship Hall on June 26 with a 60-member audience attending a presentation by Commissioner Levine and luncheon menu including pulled pork, beans, and coleslaw, followed up by cookies for dessert, furnished by Southern Vittles, Country Store, and Lake City Bakery.
On July 12, Senior Connections hosted a social at Baptist Fellowship Hall which was hosted by San Juan Soda Co. and attended by approximately 30 ice cream lovers.
Next up on the culinary docket is the resumption of home cooked senior lunches on Fridays, September 12 and 26.
Volunteers are needed, contact Cheryl Tate at 970 208 3520, and donations to Silver Thread Public Health – memo line “Senior Connections” — which can be mailed to Tate at P.O. Box 958, Lake City.
— photo courtesy Tara Hardy
