I'm happy for you! Staying active and engaged is so important. I hope you find lots of friends and fun.

The Senior Center in our town can also provide information on a lot of things -- like how to investigate senior living facilities, and how to choose Medicare supplements or Part D plans. I've borrowed from our center's lending closet when I needed a raised toilet seat and a walker for a short time following hip surgery.

At what age are they considering to be senior these days? Back in the day, it used to be 50. I don't even know if we have a senior center in our town...I need to find out. I suspect that it's for those 60 or 65 and over?

Our senior center is for 50+.

I have been active with our local RSVP (Retired and Senior Volunteer Program) that is housed in the the senior center. It is part of the county operated non-profit family services program.

Of course our goal is to keep folks active in the community through volunteering. Until last month I was the vice-president of the board. Our meetings were held once a month and I was always pleasantly surprised at some of the activities that were happening. There is one gent who comes in for about 90 minutes every day to work jigsaw puzzles. There is euchre card group and the ladies who have just begun 'coloring' (using colored pencils, not crayons). Biggest drawback for our center is the lack of parking as it is the downtown area (124,000 population).

I live in a small town and our Senior Center is very active. 5 days a week there is lunch or dinner available for I think $3. Card playing, line dancing, exercise, Weight Watchers, Wood Carvers, etc.

Also there is a Christmas party, and every month they have birthday cake for the months birthdays!

Also there are excercise machines, WII games, puzzles, a pool table and a library.

So happy to have it.

How do you go about finding a senior center? Are they state or local community?

I was searching my area and it looks like there's just one and you have to be 60...boohoo! Raven, I just google searched for senior centers in (insert town name).

Senior center closest to me is very active. All kinds of activities. Trips, exercise classes, games, line dancing, daily lunches, etc.

Many are run by local governments (city or county) and sometimes in tandem with a non-profit org. Google Senior Center and your community name.

Ours is county run.

That's wonderful, Lucille. There are many benefits for seniors if we look for them. Are you taking Uber over there? :-)

The congregate meals are free to the participants if they are supported by funds from the Older American Act, but the organization that gets the contract to provide the meals has to raise money from other sources to pay LL the bills. The $$ they get from the government (originates on the Federal level and is funneled down thru the states to the county levels) don't cover what they provide. Now, the meals are indeed no-charge, and there is no needs-testing, but it helps them a LOT if those who can afford it pitch in for each meal. It's still a great deal, even if you chip in JUST a couple of bucks.

I just stepped down from a 4-yr term on our county's dept of Aging and Adult Service's Advisory Council, where one of our jobs was to look at non-profit's bids to provide meals and other services (home-delivered meals, Medicare counseling, nursing home ombudsmen, and many other services), make recommendations for contracts, and monitor the performance of these programs. All programs get only a portion of their funds from the Older Americans Act, and are usually working hard to raise more money. Some counties make up the differences, but not too many have the extra funds. A gentle reminder to all that a donation to your local organizations goes far.

We have very few charities, but our local Senior Center is one of them. We live in an affluent community. I *hope* that those who can are paying their own share and some extra. (One of the first things I pushed for when I was first on the board of our visiting nurse association was a *sliding scale*. It was the best home health care in town, provided virtually FREE. Nobody had ever thought to ask Mr. and Mrs. Got-rocks to pay a fair fee -- and they didn't mind paying, either!)

In my opinion either a fixed payment or non payment is like school uniforms, it helps get everyone on an even footing and not artificially divide the haves and have nots. If one took donations, someone would notice who paid, who didn't, and while no one knows the situations of people at home, I think that differing payments could not help but sow the seeds of divisiveness.

I think some of those seniors would stay home rather than not contribute, if contributions were asked for.

I think many people feel as you do, Lucille, thankfully. But not all do.

An elderly person on my wife's side was a cheapskate and a freeloader - no better terms to use. He would never have considered paying for something that anyone else could get for free, such was his feeling of entitlement. Nor did he ever pass up getting something that was free, whether he needed it or not.

Thoughtful people not wanting to call attention to themselves but wanting to contribute can always arrange with the staff to give money through the mail or otherwise discreetly.

Exactly, Snidely. The meals are important not just for the nutrition, but also for the social setting. Social isolation is one of the many problems that seniors face. Lucille, one need not pay at the door, or in any public way. You can make a contribution in private by mailing a check. And it is against the rules that we have to actually ask for any contribution. One of our county meal sites is in one of the poorest communities in the state, and another is in a very affluent area. The meal service is not needs-tested, no one asks if you can afford it or not. Just know that for every dollar we get from the government for the meal services, the non-profit providing the meal raises another dollar or two or three in order to make ends meet.

We pay a (small) annual membership fee and send a check at Christmas.

Initiating the sliding scale fee for the nursing services kept the VNA afloat to serve the folks who could only pay a little (or nothing). Those folks were proud to 'pay their share'. (The VNA was a township-supported effort.)

I made the mistake of suggesting we have a no-fee (or small fee) Well Baby Clinic -- something the local pediatricians shot down. We did start a series of early childhood education talks at the local library. (It surprised me that mothers only came to the talk for the age their eldest was at the moment!)

As a former school nurse I love the idea of a free well baby clinic. I worked in inner city schools that had a high number of poor parents, who at that time could not go for well baby checkups. These days there are more options for poor parents than back then, and some places for free immunizations, but an ounce of prevention is worthwhile.

Snidely's comment about entitlement awakened a fond and amusing memory of my Father and his lifelong best friend. Both my Dad and his best friend grew up in want and poverty. Both escaped their pasts by hard work and a good education. But by virtue of a patent, my Dad's friend became a millionaire.

Although he was well off, whenever the two of them went out to eat, his friend would duck into the bathroom when the check arrived, and my Father always paid it. They were dear friends, but I don't think his friend ever escaped the memory of his harsh early years, and the fear of poverty. My Father understood, and never judged, because his friend brought so much into my Father's life.

I think there is a senior center in our nearest town. I have no idea about it. I am too busy with things around here to have much free time for things like that.

Sue

Yes, you are amazing, and with all you do, you can't make time for more stuff.

But I'm really looking forward to exercise and dance lessons, and just taking the time to get to know some of the other people there at the center.

I just received my senior monthly newsletter with all the activities for Feb. Made a number of friends thru the center.

I joined a local senior center several months after my husband died. I participate in the activities that appeal to me and I have made some wonderful friends. It helps to alleviate the loneliness.

I mentioned the idea to a friend that's few years older than I am and she acted offended and said she wouldn't consider herself to be senior age until she's at least 80. I think she's in denial. HA!

It was suggested to one of my grandmothers once that the local senior center might be of interest. She replied that there were too many old people there.

This was when she was in her 80s.

The two of them (grandmother and grandfather) apparently preferred to be socially isolated, spent most of their time sitting in their apartment.

Went to my first class today- a Zumba dance class. Bunch of kick butt seniors that were ALL better than me. Clearly despite recent exercising and weightlifting I'm still not in as good of shape as I want. I have aspirations to be as good as they are. Incredibly good instructor.

While I was waiting for class I got to meet a guy in another area of the center, very talented, but had the misfortune of losing most of his vision in an accident some years ago. He plays harmonica and banjo for the rest of us at times. He played some blues tunes he learned in Louisiana, just for me:)

'Old people' are as much individuals as any other people.

I mentioned joining a senior group to my DH and he looked at me and said "But that's for old people". LOL I looked at him and said "Duh!" What do you think we are? He's 70 and I'm 64.

I think what's being referred to are older people whose age predominates what they do and think. I'd expect those at an exercise class would be much more interesting and young at heart than the ones sitting in chairs waiting for lunch and grousing about the world in general.

On the other hand, anyone at a senior center at least made the effort to get out and be with other people.