Even with public funds to the Morgan Hill senior center being threatened in recent years, the growing population of residents age 65 and older here have stepped up to ensure the facility and its many service offerings are thriving more than ever.
The senior center’s flagship nutrition program, which offers lunch to everyone who attends every day, has grown significantly. The lunch program now provides meals to an average of 87 local senior residents per day, according to senior center director Susan Fent.
Other services, programs and classes – from fitness activities to fun classes like knitting to services like the computer lab – center around the lunch program.
“They can come for lunch and take care of (chores and exercise) while they’re there,” said John Tarvin, 67, a frequent user of the senior center and an active fundraiser for the facility.
The rise in popularity at the Morgan Hill senior center has been steady since Fent started working there as director in 2007.
The fastest-growing activities at the senior center are the fitness programs, which are “busting at the seams,” Fent. These include an arthritis therapy class, pilates, yoga and walking. The seniors also have access to programs at the adjacent Centennial Recreation Center, including aerobics and the swimming pool.
“They appreciate the importance of staying healthy and fit,” Fent said.
Some areas have increased “dramatically,” she added. The waiting list for legal services offered at the center, for example, is four months long. Plus, there are about 20 people on the waiting list for transportation services.
That means there about 20 Morgan Hill seniors every day who cannot attend the facility’s marquis offering – the daily nutrition program lunch.
Tarvin suggested a bus route similar to the “community bus 16” that was cut a couple years ago would be helpful for the city’s older residents.
Perhaps the most important advantage of the senior center, regardless of what activities the participants choose to partake in, is the ability to socialize with other members of the community.
“The opportunity that the senior center provides for seniors to get out of their house, and come down there and socialize – that’s the biggest thing, rather than staying cooped up in their home,” Tarvin said. “That’s a big part of your life when you think about it, is being able to socialize.”
This socialization is also facilitated by special events at the center like dancing and parties on holidays such as Mardi Gras and St. Patrick’s Day.
Tarvin has been an active fundraiser with the nonprofit Friends of the Morgan Hill Senior Center, which is under the umbrella of the Morgan Hill Community Foundation.
The Friends organization was created last year as a way to privately raise money to keep all or most of the senior center programs going, after the city came close to making significant cuts to the services a couple years ago due its own declining financial health.
One of the nonprofit’s ongoing fundraisers is weekly Bingo at the Community and Cultural Center every Tuesday night. That has become immensely popular in recent months, Tarvin said.
So far the Friends have raised a total of about $21,000 through Bingo, YMCA fundraising efforts and other campaigns.
Supporters hope to parlay that fundraising momentum into widespread awareness of the need to keep the senior center thriving, and to continue to support more essential senior citizens’ services in general.
“The community needs to help these folks be a part of the community,” Tarvin said. “We have to be careful not to exclude the older population because it’s a big part of Morgan Hill, and it’s going to continue being that way for a long time.”
