As a larger percentage of the population advances toward the golden years, one senior center is stepping up its programming.
The Rotterdam Senior Center serves about 1,000 people per month, with a dip during prime vacation season during warm summer months. Once the cold air returns, it’s ready to offer a warm welcome to new, returning and regular visitors.
Town Supervisor Harry Buffardi said there are about 8,000 seniors in Rotterdam, and addressing the needs of an aging population is a major focus for the town.
“It is more than a senior center, it is a community resource,” Buffardi said. “It acts as a resource for the community, and it certainly helps keep our community members vibrant, active and in touch with each other. It helps us keep an eye on our aging population to make sure they are being properly serviced.”
The center focuses on individuals 55 and older, but Senior Center Project Coordinator Eileen Langer-Smith said a greater focus is being made on what she dubbed “the freestylers,” which consists of 55- to 65-year-olds.
“Many in that age group are still working or are caregivers for their family, whether it is with their parents or with their grandchildren,” Langer-Smith said. “We are looking to provide classes in the evening … and on the weekends.”
She said the center often hears, “I’d love to do it, but I work,” so expanding offerings outside of hours during the day is hoped to increase its reach.
“I was talking to one of my neighbors yesterday and she said, ‘I’d love to, but I am babysitting all the time for my grandkids,’ so it is hit or miss with them as far as the evenings,” Langer-Smith said.
Several activities have recently been added or enhanced at the center, and include classes on playing mahjong, increasing Italian classes to include basic and intermediate, and day and evening hours for line dancing classes and tai chi. The center also recently become a provider for the American Red Cross, so in the fall, courses will be offered that area geared toward seniors, such as CPR instruction and how to care for pets.
Often times, seniors at the center provide feedback on what they’d like to see offered, and the center tries to accommodate the requests. The backbone of the center, though, is a strong volunteer and worker base, which helps offer the variety.
“We have a very large cadre of volunteers,” Langer-Smith said.
She is relatively new to the center, stepping into to her position on April 9, so hearing feedback from the community was important.
“I wanted explore what the center had,” she said. “I wanted to listen to the seniors and their needs and just sit back for a while and see.”
After retiring from the state last summer, she had some free time between employment as an adjunct professor at Schenectady County Community College. She also knew Supervisor Harry Buffardi from the college, where he also taught.
“It just seemed like a good fit,” she said.
One thing she quickly learned was the most popular thing offered at the center is bingo, which is run by volunteers. Around 35 to 40 people will show up for an afternoon game.
During the previous town administration, the senior center often stewed with controversy, as the members of the public and center workers voiced outrage over former supervisor Frank Del Gallo’s decisions.
In January 2011, several residents protested the transfer of a senior center employee, along with three other town employees, which Del Gallo said was done for cross training and was within his authority.
Senior Center employee Molly Collins was moved to fill a vacant position as a typist in town court. Collins was slated to retire in two years, but the training for the typist position is estimated to take 18 months.
All four of the town employees were eventually moved back to their positions after fellow town board members voted to undo the supervisor’s switch.
In February 2011, Del Gallo removed former center project coordinator Diane Marco, who was elected Town Clerk last election, despite consulting with fellow board members on the decision.
Once again, members of the public cried out against Del Gallo’s decision.
The position remained vacant, Buffardi said, until Langer-Smith was hired this year, which returned some stability to the administration.
“Eileen Langer-Smith is a very smart woman and she works very hard and she has a background that is suitable to running the center,” Buffardi said. “I attribute any success we are having now to her.”