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Photograph by George Sakkestad
Margaret Ford enjoys her aerobics workout at the Saratoga Senior Center.
Modern Maturity
From exercise classes to Internet training, today's senior centers are happening places
By Sandy Sims
Notes from Duke Ellington's big jazz hit Satin Doll drift out to the reception area at the Saratoga Senior Center. Men and women, 27 of them, lay sprawled on the floor of the large multipurpose room, bending, lifting, stretching their legs. Some days participants range in age from the 50s to one regular comer, Esther Stevens, who is 102 (still driving, by the way, and having survived four husbands).
"Lift, lift, lift," the 30-something teacher from West Valley College calls out.
Jeanne Augustine, the volunteer at the reception desk, pays little attention to the music. She's too busy. Two women come up to the desk holding blood-pressure paraphernalia and ask, "Where can we take blood pressure today?" Another woman edges forward and asks when the podiatrist will be in. The phone rings. Someone is asking about the computer class. Augustine suddenly remembers she's supposed to count the people in the fitness class.
Soon the widow and widowers group will be meeting in a small room, and the memoir-writing class will begin just down the hall.
Augustine is one of the underpinnings of the senior center. This place, abuzz with activities and services, is dependent on the support of an amazing cadre of volunteers, the generosity of the people of Saratoga, a network of nonprofit agencies, and--believe it or not--the stock market.
Saratogan Lane Tronson, vice-president-at-large for the Saratoga Area Senior Coordinating Council (SASCC), the administering organization for the senior center, is another volunteer. His wife works out in the fitness class. When he retired from IBM and then from his own financial business, "everything stopped abruptly," he recalls. He decided to get involved in the community. Now, in addition to Rotary and a couple of other organizations with which he's involved, he is serving on the board of SASCC. "I feel this is an important service," he says. "It benefits the community and me."
He couldn't be more right on both counts. "Age wave" is the buzz phrase for the burgeoning senior population. Between the years of 1990 and 2010, the number of seniors is supposed to double, and if Saratoga is to meet the needs of its growing senior population, it must have services available.
Way back in 1965, Congress saw this tsunami coming and passed the Older Americans Act. This legislation set up an infrastructure to help communities keep the aging population from becoming poor, isolated and uncared for. As a result, counties and cities have created agencies to meet senior needs for nutrition, transportation, case workers, socialization, homecare and more.
Each city can set up its services however it chooses. In fact, "senior centers usually reflect the community they are in," Diane Snow, director of Cupertino's senior center, says.
Although Saratoga boasts one of the wealthiest populations in the Bay Area, the city itself is tax poor--the result of changes brought about by Proposition 13 and a relatively small commercial base. The City Council decided the city was not in the business of social service and did not have the money in the coffers to support a senior center, so in 1979 councilmembers set up SASCC as a nonprofit corporation to oversee the creation of a senior center.
Early on, SASCC set up an endowment fund that citizens have added to over the years. One Saratoga woman who was alone and had found friendships at the center made an agreement with SASCC. They helped her through her last days of cancer, and she left property to the endowment. The money from the sale of the property increased the endowment considerably, and it has grown and doubled over the years. SASCC cannot touch the endowment's principal but uses the interest and capital gains for the bulk of the center's $355,535 budget.
However, Mary Richards, director of the center since July 1998, explains that the amount available from the endowment depends on the ups and downs of the market, which could spell disaster should the market take a big dip.
"People don't really know about this place," Tronson says as he munches salad at a Wednesday luncheon, where later an ophthalmologist will speak on the latest in eye treatment. "Many are put off by the word senior," he explains. "We have some great people here and wonderful activities and services." In fact, members range in profession from homemakers to retired physicians and CEOs, some of them offering their skills and expertise at the center. Tronson has written up financial advice in the center's newsletter, The Outlook.
Photograph by George Sakkestad
Saratoga Senior Center Director Mary Richards (right) takes a look at Della Griffin's work in progress at a senior center painting class.
The center offers a melange of recreation and education that includes bridge, pool, crafts, golf, and classes in art history, painting, memoir writing, English as a second language, lip reading, mah jong, investment planning and more.
Members can get free legal advice, information about their health insurance and financial counseling. A podiatrist volunteers once a week to give free exams, and volunteer nurses come in to take blood pressure. Members take trips to places like Yosemite, Jack London State Park, Reno, Tahoe, and San Jose's Tech Museum. They review books. They have a support group for widows and widowers and one for care givers, and a social worker is there two days a week.
SASCC also administers an adult day-care center that serves 21 seniors and is at full capacity right now.
Supporting this full-service senior center can be quite precarious, as SASCC found out in 1997 when the citizens of Saratoga voted not to continue their utility-users tax. The center lost almost $20,000 of its funding and sent out an emergency mailing to the people of Saratoga for help. That mailing is now a permanent activity, along with a number of fund-raising events throughout the year.
In spite of the precariousness of things, the Saratoga Senior Center is an example of volunteerism and community support that works, a symbiotic relationship that the community and seniors keep going and that in turn keeps seniors going. "Volunteers are the life blood of this place," Richards says. "We could not exist without them." 300 volunteers do everything from watering plants to teaching some of the classes.
Olga MacFarlane, who retired last year as director of the center, says Saratogans are a community minded bunch. "Those who volunteer at the center are usually volunteering in other places in the community, too," she says, and those who aren't able to volunteer use the services. MacFarlane is taking the center's painting class.
It's true, though, that Americans shy away from a senior center because they hate the term senior. (Officially--believe it or not--the beginning age for seniors is 50.) For many, the term conjures up images of ancient, little, wrinkled, feeble, dull-witted, dependent people, a throwaway group; not to mention the fact that our society does seem to lump seniors into a has-been heap.
However, Lita Friedlander, executive director of Live Oak Adult Day Services in Los Gatos, says "only 8 percent of seniors become dependent [needing 24-hour supervision]," which means the other 92 percent remain independent, though they may need support services to do so.
Richards explains that there is a wide range in seniors-- what she calls freshmen seniors (50s), sophomore seniors (60s), juniors (70s) and seniors (80s and up). "We want our center to appeal to all age groups," she says.
Cupertino's Diane Snow agrees that people shy away from senior centers because of the word senior. "But," she says, "when they hear about some of the classes, even the 50-year-olds come in and sign up." Research shows that, as a group, educated and involved seniors live longer and healthier lives. The 55-plus population in Santa Clara county is expected to grow by 93.1 percent (almost double) between the years 1990 and 2010 . The fastest-growing group is the 85-plus group, which will increase by 174.2 percent.
Photograph by George Sakkestad
Patty Ogino lifts weights during her workout at the Saratoga Senior Center.
Seniors as a whole in Silicon Valley are packing into senior centers and taking classes in everything from yoga to Microsoft Word. In fact, computer classes at The Willows Senior Center in Willow Glen proved so popular--1,400 wanted to sign up--that people slept in the parking lot to register until the center developed a come-and-get-a-number system. Fitness classes are always full. The floor of Saratoga's large room is pretty well covered. "People are even getting territorial about their space," Richards laughs.
Some communities are gearing up for the Age Wave. Cupertino and Sunnyvale are building new, bigger senior centers.
"Saratogans," Richards says, "like intellectual stimulation and want to keep up with today's world." Which is why the new Internet class is filling fast, and though some seniors are a little intimidated, they are excited to finally learn about email and websites.
But the center is not just an entertainment mall; it provides important services for the difficulties seniors face.
It's the senior seniors who usually develop limitations and need support services to remain independent and involved. Peggy Corr, president of SASCC's board of directors, says that one woman who'd been a regular volunteer at the center for many years is now in her 90s and using a walker. Corr just recently talked to the her on the phone. "I miss the center, it was my life" the woman said to Corr.
"We've got to find a way to get her to the center again," Corr says.
When seniors no longer drive, or develop other limitations, they can become isolated and perhaps lose the ability to shop or clean house. That's often the point when Nadine Fralick, the center's part-time social worker, gets a call from concerned adult children, a neighbor or from seniors themselves asking for help. "I get calls from as far away as New Jersey and Oregon," Fralick says.
She says that the children often want mom or dad to move into a place with congregate living, where they will get a meal prepared for them. "But many seniors don't want to leave their homes, and there isn't much senior housing available in Saratoga," Fralick explains.
She keeps lists of support services--home care, Meals on Wheels, handymen, grab-bar installers, people who haul and weed, and also people willing to drive.
Fralick doesn't make home calls but can refer a caseworker for home calls.
The city continues to donate the utilities, building maintenance and some in-kind equipment, including the telephones and copiers. However, the building's use as a senior center is limited to daytime, MacFarlane explains. Adult education uses it in the evenings. The center must request the building when they have a special evening or weekend event.
Photograph by George Sakkestad
Florence Takei and George Ogino play bridge at the Saratoga Senior Center.
Community organizations give all kinds of gifts. Local firefighters recently donated a big-screen television so the Internet class can be taught on web TV. The De Anza Kiwanis donated a therapeutic garden for the day-care center. The Rotary Club, Summit League, Lions, Soroptimists, Valley foundation, Silicon Valley Charity Ball, Lockheed's Buck a Month club and individual donations have all supported the center. "We make our needs known by sending requests, and the organizations have been very generous," MacFarlane explains. West Valley College provides teachers for classes, using federal money allotted to education of seniors.
Seniors pay $12 a year for membership, and the center charges small fees for some of its classes.
"Olga MacFarlane did an incredible job building up this center," Richards says. The energetic, 37-year-old director is excited about the center's possibilities. She was director of the adult day care facility just down the hall for a year, and was instrumental in filling that facility to capacity as well as getting a patio and a garden built.
Richards is determined to create a computer lab for on-going computer classes in the senior center. She's already working on it. The city has given block grant money to the center to create smaller rooms inside the center for more classes. Richards plans to go to the high-tech industry and garner donations for the lab.
When the fitness group clears out of the multipurpose room on Wednesday, volunteers move in to set up round tables with light blue tablecloths and flowers. They help the cook prepare salad, a creamy pasta dish, fruit and strawberry shortcake. Philip Woo, an 80-something Chinese American who speaks Mandarin, Cantonese and what he calls Shanhai, sits at a card table by the door to collect the $4 fee for lunch.
At noon the place fills again. People line up for the buffet. Members of the widow and widower's group, which has met on Wednesday mornings for years, likes to sit together.
For information about the Saratoga Senior Center call 868-1257. For information about the Adult Care Center, call 868-1262.
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Saratoga, California Since 1975
