Maranda Weathermon, Director, Kemmerer Senior Center

To the Editor,

A vital part of our community is being forgotten by our residents. The Kemmerer Senior Center sits nestled in the heart of our community’s history. It’s an unassuming yellow building with a simple wooden sign welcoming people into its doors — a hop, skip and jump from the J.C. Penney store and historic Triangle. Only friendship and camaraderie are spoken past its doors. Laughter and love fill its main room, and still, few people come. The senior center provides a vital service to this community, offering meals, public transportation and activities. It not only welcomes seniors but anyone who wants to visit. Still, few people come.

Most of our funding comes from state and federal organizations.With every legislative session, staff and board members hold our breath to see if that funding will be decreased, increased or held steady. The senior center’s funding also relies on its visitation to gain its funding. Every month we report how many people have come through our doors to eat a meal, have a meal delivered because they are homebound, or just come in and play a game, chat over a craft project or lose a game of Wii Bowling to Ralph. Those numbers are how the government organizations decide how much to send us to keep our doors open.   

You are only as old as you feel — Caroline is 91 and will dance any of us under the table!  You can be 25 or 80, and the senior center still has something to offer you. So don’t let the stigma of being “old” stop you from visiting the unassuming yellow building at the heart of downtown. You may make a friend, learn something new or just help us keep our doors open for people who need one of our special services. 

Maranda Weathermon

Director, Kemmerer Senior Center