Photograph by Jacqueline Ramseyer
Lois Landi and Bud Perry twirled to the big band music of The Nob Hill Sounds at a Valentine's Day dance held at the Sunnyvale Senior Center last year. When the new center is completed, seniors will have a new ballroom to boogie in.
Center breaks ground after four years
Hundreds of seniors turn out for event
By William Jeske
Fifteen people, including city council members, city staff and members of the Sunnyvale Multi-Purpose Senior Center donned yellow construction hats and brandished new, clean shovels for a groundbreaking ceremony for the new senior center.
A couple hundred senior citizens and several city officials packed the conference hall in the recreation building at the Sunnyvale Community Center on April 24, where Mayor Fred Fowler opened the festivities.
"Actually, [the community center] was supposed to be a combined youth and senior center when it was being built," Fowler mused from the podium. "But the city learned a lesson-that you can't really combine youth with senior citizens."
The Sunnyvale Multi-Purpose Senior Center has been located at the former Adair Elementary School since 1984. It currently supports several senior citizen clubs and organizations, including the American Association of Retired Persons, the Bayview Senior Citizens Club, the Chinese Senior Club and the Sociedad de Senioras Isabella.
All these organizations operating out of an old elementary school hasn't allowed for much elbowroom. So Helen DeWolf of the Senior Center's advisory council arranged to gather 100 senior citizens to pack the council chambers at a July 1998 meeting to campaign for a new building. The council voted unanimously to approve a new senior center.
DeWolf cites several reasons for requesting a new center, including the need for more room and equipment, and better accommodations for events and services. Also, DeWolf claims, the school district wanted the elementary school campus back.
"I originally wanted 25,000 square feet," DeWolf said, gesturing to an illustration of the new center provided by the Steinberg Group, the project's architect. "But we got 23,000 square feet instead."
DeWolf doesn't seem to mind, however, and neither does Claire Silberman, also on the advisory council. Silberman is anticipating a larger, more modern computer lab, to be equipped with several PCs and Macintosh computers.
Nancy Haytell, program coordinator for the senior center, said she is looking forward to having a ballroom with a hardwood floor.
The April 24th groundbreaking was another milestone in this project's history. Construction is to begin this month and is to be completed by this time next year.
The city may have all the time it needs to build the senior center, but there are several who only saw it as an idea on paper.
Fowler invited the attendees to join in a moment of silence in memory of those seniors who had died since the project's commencement.
DeWolf remembers many of them. "Many of these seniors--they're in their eighties--so to wait four years, [they] may not be here."
The opening ceremony continued as prominent project instigators were recognized, and soon the 15 hard hats and shovels were assigned. Of the city council members, all but Councilwoman Pat Vorrieter attended.
The Sunnyvale Multi-Purpose Senior Center is located at 820 W. McKinley Ave. It is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Call 408.730.7360 or visit www.ci.sunnyvale.ca.us/leisure-services/activities/
older-adults/index.htm.
Sunnyvale, California Since 1994
