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Rising Seniors

Posted on September 13, 2007 by Staff

New center a buzz of activity since opening


Joan Hiskey, center, participates in a strength and mobility class for seniors at the newly opened senior center on Homestead Road. Photo by Isaac Sandlin

By Susan Dickson
Staff Writer

Over the past few months, county seniors have been quietly settling into their new senior center, which has quickly become a hot spot for the area’s older population.

The Robert and Pearl Seymour Center for Seniors has been open since May, and while it still has that new-car smell, it’s already a second home for its regular visitors.

On a recent Thursday morning, the center is scattered with people. A group of older men sit near the entrance watching the activities around them, rehashing the week’s happenings. One is wearing UNC attire head-to-toe, while another dons suspenders and a fedora.

Their ease and comfort suggests their late-morning rendezvous isn’t a rare occurrence. From where the men sit, most of the center is visible, and they seem to be taking it all in.

The center resembles a ski lodge, with huge windows and tall ceilings supported by exposed wooden beams. It’s open and airy and echoes with chatter almost like that of a high school, only slightly muted.

“We made sure that the central focus point of the center is free floating,” said Jerry Passmore, director of the Orange County Department on Aging. “People don’t have to be signed up for anything. They can just enjoy the amenities.”

The center certainly provides plenty for visitors to do, with a fitness center, a café, a large movie theater, a computer classroom, ping-pong and pool tables. There’s also an art room and another for crafts.

Both are a bit messy with ongoing and completed projects. Near the center’s entrance, adjacent to the area where the older men are sitting, crafts for sale are displayed in a glass case.

Down the hall, the center’s fitness center is bustling. A couple of seniors work out in the equipment room, where a trainer is on hand to offer advice and assistance. Next door, a group of seniors – all shapes and sizes  – participate in a strength-training class.

Strangely enough, it feels a bit like summer camp.

Passmore said the center’s diversity of activities is intended to ensure that there’s something for everyone. When the Northside and Chapel Hill senior centers closed, some were concerned that the new center wouldn’t cater to everyone, and that only certain groups of people would use it.

The Northside Senior Center was generally frequented by the predominantly black population of the neighborhood where it was situated and offered different activities than the Chapel Hill Senior Center.

Sylvia Hubbard stretches during a strength and mobility class. Photo by Isaac Sandlin 

For instance, crafts – such as jewelry-making and flower displays – were extremely popular at the Northside center, while visitors to the Chapel Hill center preferred art. In response to these different focuses, said Passmore, the Seymour Center was built with both an arts and a crafts room.

The arts and crafts focus this morning seems to be jewelry-making, and about six or seven ladies are crowded around a table in the crafts room. One woman is making a watch for her daughter, while others work on different projects or offer suggestions.

As Passmore enters the room, the conversation drifts from the projects at hand to a debate over the need for a soda machine. Some of the women advocate for the machine while others say they don’t want to be tempted by the sugary drinks.

Passmore said that balancing the competing wants and needs of seniors has become more difficult in recent years as baby-boomers have aged and the senior population has grown exponentially.

Because the center is targeted toward people ages 55-105, services and activities have to be designed for a group of people with a wide range of needs and abilities, he added.

Marvin Block, a senior center regular and former UNC professor, said he thought it was important for all seniors to come to the center to participate in activities and socialize.

“You have to say, well, we’ll make the best of it as long as we can,” he said, grinning from ear to ear.

When asked about what he would like to accomplish through the new center, Passmore paused for a moment before responding: “Bringing more people together. Getting people out of their box.”

‘Not just fun and games’
Though the center certainly seems to have a thriving social scene, Passmore emphasized that there is much more to it than planned activities.

“It’s not just fun and games,” he said. The center offers seniors a number of services, which are growing and expanding every day, and Passmore said a lot of seniors aren’t aware of the services available to them.

“You can come in for one thing, and you leave with something else,” he said, noting the separate space for services. While most of the center is open, seniors visit enclosed offices to discuss Medicare, volunteer opportunities and personalized services for those going through transitions.

The center also has an occupational therapist on hand to help older seniors evaluate their homes as they age.

“We’ve got a focus on prevention, rather than reaction,” Passmore said, “functionality, and keeping people well.”

Next year, the senior center will be a one-stop voting center. Passmore said center staff is trying to bring increasingly more county services to the center, such as health department services or county services, to make the center’s offerings more comprehensive.

“My thing is making people feel they can be independent as long as possible,” Passmore said.

As morning rolls toward noon and the smell of a mid-day meal wafts through the center, the scattered groups of people have shifted toward the great room, where lunch is served on weekdays.

The men who had been sitting near the center’s entrance are now downstairs, close to the ping-pong and pool tables around the corner from the great room. A group of domino-players nearby has merged with the group of men, and some are commenting on a ping-pong match.

Despite the group’s move from upstairs, they seem as if they’ve been there all morning, perfectly at ease, and ready for lunch.

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