Gig Harbor Senior Center ‘reopens’ its home. Here’s where to go for bingo
Like the Flying Dutchman of legend, the Gig Harbor Senior Center has spent the last two years scudding from place to place in search of a home. Now it has one, at least for a while.
The volunteer organization has set a January, 2022 “reopening” of its temporary home in the fellowship hall at Peninsula Lutheran Church, 6509 38th Ave.
“We are very thankful to have this wonderful space,” said Betty Lilienthal, the center’s indefatigable 84-year-old vice president. “It is so very important for Gig Harbor to have a vital, viable senior center.”
The reopening ceremony had been set for Sept. 9, but has been postponed because of the surge in the Delta variant of COVID-19. Some activities at the center may also be curtailed.
The Senior Center lost its previous facility in 2019, when the Boys and Girls Club sold its building at 8502 Skansie Ave. to the Peninsula School District for conversion into the new Pioneer Elementary School. The Senior Center had been part of the facility since it was built in 2010.
In May of 2019, the Senior Center was incorporated into the Greater Gig Harbor Foundation as a 501c(3) charity, meaning it could raise funds and accept donations — including an initial $100,000 donation from the Boys and Girls Club from the sale of the building.
A ‘punch in the gut’
Since then, the seniors and a hard core of volunteers have been drifting from place to place, Lilienthal said — none of them very satisfactory. They had hardly settled in at Peninsula Lutheran when the pandemic hit, forcing them to close down.
“After we lost our home, things started going downhill,” she said. “Losing space for exercise was a real punch in the gut. And we had to stop the computer classes and several other activities for lack of facilities.”
The agreement with Peninsula Lutheran for use of its fellowship hall several days a week will let the Senior Center restart at least some of its activities, including free hot lunches and “Wisdom Wednesdays,” on which seniors hear from experts on topics such as estate planning and avoiding telephone credit card fraud.
This week’s schedule, for instance, included quilting, a social hour for gossip and coffee, bean-bag basketball, mahjong, and of course, bingo. There are also the low-cost “pick up and go” lunches on Mondays and Wednesdays from Catholic Community Services.
“They’ve been really great guests of the church,” said Pastor Chuck Slocum. “They have all sorts of activities, and they’re just really starting to get traction in the neighborhood.” He said there have been conversations with Harbor Christian School, another renter, about some activities that could involve both students and seniors.
As welcoming as the church has been, there have had to be some adjustments, Lilienthal said. The popular intro to computer classes had to be dropped; the church hall hasn’t enough connections. And there isn’t enough room for Tai Chi and other exercise classes.
That’s one reason the center is still looking for a permanent home, Lilienthal said. The old Masonic lodge in Crescent Creek Park was considered, but talks with the city were not successful.
Busy during pandemic
Being homeless hasn’t meant the Senior Center hasn’t been busy, she said, particularly during the COVID-19 pandemic. At the height of the shutdown, the organization’s volunteers prepared and delivered 10,000 meals to shut-in seniors. The deliveries went out every Friday for 18 months.
“When farmers were donating their crops rather than plow them under, we had the county giving us vegetables so fresh they still had the dirt clinging to them,” Lilienthal said.
When vaccinations began, Lilienthal began hearing stories about seniors, confused and baffled by the balky registration process, complaining that they couldn’t get appointments, even though seniors were supposed to be first in line.
She called Dr. Francis Mercado, a division head at St. Anthony Hospital, and said, “We have a database. Why don’t we use it to get these seniors vaccinated.” Mercado agreed, she said, and “within two weeks, we were getting seniors vaccinated.”
Eighteen volunteers made 695 phone calls, and 300 seniors got appointments, she said.
Most senior senior
The ribbon-cutting Sept. 9 had been scheduled to feature the area’s most senior senior, 95-year-old Hugh McMillan, up until recently a Gateway columnist and a longtime supporter of the senior center.
It also had been scheduled to include Mayor Kit Kuhn and City Council Member Tracie Markley, who is running unopposed in November and is likely to be the next mayor. Lilienthal plans to use the occasion to bend both officials’ ears.
“We’ve already met with Tracie Markley, and she’s been supportive, so we have high hopes,” she said. Up to now, “it’s been so tenuous. We have no agreements with the city of any kind.”
Lilienthal notes census figures that show 24% of Gig Harbor’s population is over 65, and nursing homes are practically the city’s largest industry.
“We’ve had conversations with everybody — the city, PenMet Parks, the county,” she said. “They’re all very interested in sports and youth groups, and that’s where the commitments are. I’m happy that the kids have a place to go, but the seniors also need a place to keep happy and healthy and fit. Even if you can stay in your own home, you need that social connection outside the home.”
This story was originally published September 2, 2021 at 5:00 AM.