New director has Whiteside Senior Center buzzing with new activities

STERLING – Like crocuses through the spring snow, colorful new activities are popping up all over the Whiteside County Senior Center.

Susie Welch, the former Foster Grandparent program director at Tri-County Opportunities Council in Rock Falls, is the center’s new director. In just three months at the helm, she has shepherded in tons of new activities, which is bringing membership back up.

The center, at 1207 W. Ninth St., was closed to in-person visits during the pandemic, providing what services it could, such as caregiver assistance, over the phone only.

Now, however, “all our activities are back and going strong,” Welch said, noting that the isolation caused by COVID-19 restrictions was particularly hard on the area’s senior population.

Those who haven’t been to the senior center, or haven’t been there in a while, will be pleasantly surprised by all there is to do. Many services and activities are available to anyone, not just the 60-and-older set, and are free.

Among the center’s new offerings are the new lunch service, provided by Golden Wheels of Freeport. It’s the same agency that delivers meals regionwide.

At the senior center, lunch is served from 11 a.m. to noon, Monday through Thursday.

The cost is $3, and because Golden Wheels runs the service, diners can pay for their meals with a LINK card.

“I’ve tried them, they are tasty,” Welch said. “I found it to be very filling.”

A Breakfast Club, in which the center’s Yvonne Jones will meet with seniors the last Friday of the month at a rotating slate of restaurants, starts March 25.

“Eating alone is not fun,” Welch said, noting that this will not only help seniors socialize, but also will be good for the businesses that are chosen.

She also wants to help center users keep up with the latest technology.

With the help of Surf Broadband reps, the center has been offering sessions on how to stream online. The free classes are among those open to anyone in the community; the next is at 1 p.m. Friday, and then again at 6 p.m. March 30.

In addition, IT students from the Whiteside Area Career Center have been spending Fridays at the center, giving tech advice. They’ll be doing that through April, when the school year ends.

Free tax preparation services are available to all, as well. Preparers are volunteers, and are trained free of charge. Most work only a few hours a day, a few days a week, and while this year is covered, the center is trying to line up volunteers for next year.

What else? Well, the center now provides space for a Thursday afternoon jam session, where musicians can get together from 1 to 4 p.m. and play, or just hang out with other musicians. The center has a piano; participants also are invited to bring their own instruments.

There’s a once-a-week Bible study session, yoga, line dancing is starting in April, as is a new walking club, where seniors can chat while doing laps around the center, in a safe space and out of the weather.

Welch has started a little bring-one-take-one library, and also is showing classic movies once a month.

That’s all on top of the regular activities, including pool, cards, and crafts.

Among the services the center offers is a food pantry.

One of the first projects Welch initiated was converting a closet into the pantry, which had been stationed outside in the Whiteside County Public Transportation bus garage.

Once a week staff would spend three hours dragging the food indoors, then three hours putting it back. This will eliminate that hassle, Welch said.

Once the closet conversion is finished, the pantry will be open once a week for two hours – a time that still is being determined – and on an as-needed basis, should a senior have a food emergency, like a refrigerator conking out, she said.

The center also is working on a plan to create a mobile food pantry that will use the center’s minivan, and volunteer vehicles, to take food out into outlying county communities such as Morrison, Erie, Prophetstown, etc.

“That’s our goal,” Welch said.

Donations are gratefully accepted for the pantry, bu money is better that actual food, because staff can buy food at greatly discounted prices from the food bank, she said.

Her goal is to make the space as vibrant, social and useful as possible, not only with seniors, but for the whole community, Welch said.

“The senior center is a great place where people can come and feel safe, feel like they belong, and enjoy life.”

As for her senior members, “we want to be a blessing to them during their enjoyable years.”

To learn more

The Whiteside County Senior Center is open from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Monday through Friday.

Although the center offers services to those 60 and older, anyone can join – the cost is $25 a year – and most activities are available to anyone, usually free of charge.

More programs, services and information can be found on the senior center’s new and improved website, https://wc-seniorcenter.org/, and on its Facebook page.

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