Prineville Senior Center seeks community support

The Prineville Soroptimist Senior Center received a federal Community Development Block Grant in the spring to renovate its building.

But none of that money goes to the center’s operating budget, so the nonprofit is looking to the community for help.

“It’s a good connection, so you don’t sit home and never talk to anybody,” exercise class instructor Sharon Bell said Tuesday. “We just enjoy coming here. The whole social aspect of it is just wonderful.”

Bell and her husband go to the center at least four days a week. The center serves lunch, offers exercise classes, games, movies, and even line dancing lessons to people older than 60.

“We are doing just fine — we don’t want anybody to get the idea that we are closing or we are in trouble,” said Melody Kendall, senior center coordinator and bookkeeper. “We are a poor nonprofit, and we could always use donations.”

The center spends some of the operating funds on delivering meals to seniors or people with disabilities within a five-mile radius who cannot leave their homes. The food is delivered five days a week by four volunteers.

Volunteers each deliver 14 to 20 meals a day. That’s a few hundred meals delivered every week.

“People are waiting for us at the door when we get there,” said home delivery volunteer Jack Rabenberg.

He said delivering the meals is rewarding and people appreciate a friendly face.

“A lot of these people, oftentimes, the only people they see during the week are those delivering the meals,” Rabenberg said.

From July 2017 through June of this year, the center also served more than 35,000 meals to seniors who came to the building. From 50 to 130 seniors will go to the center each day.

But the center wants to reach more seniors in the community.

“A lot of people that even grew up here walk in the door and go, ‘I’ve never been here before — this is really great,'” Kendall said.

She said it’s not just a senior center, it’s a social gathering of unique people.

“These people are so great, and they’re such a source of information, knowledge and joy,” Kendall said. “And helping each other, they really do — if someone comes in and sits by themselves at a table, there will be three or four people that go over to their table and say, ‘Come over to our table and join us!'”

The senior center official said they’re thankful for the support that already exists in the community. The next step is renovating the building.

Below is a link for more information:

https://seniorcenter.us/sc/prineville_soroptimists_senior_center_prineville_or