Grandma wouldn't recognize the local senior center

Newest facilities are designed for a more active generation

Mornings are full of exercise activity in the workout room at the Lowell Senior Center. (Globe Staff Photo / Joanne Rathe)

Once known as a haven for older folks to gather for bingo and bridge, senior centers in Massachusetts are going through a makeover.

Many of today's seniors, led by the baby boom generation, are looking for a more modern environment that offers exercise classes, travel opportunities, and educational programs, say seniors and those who work with them.

"You've got to keep your mind in it," said Gary Stack, 69, of Lowell.

Stack works out for an hour, five days a week, at the Lowell Senior Center. He does 20 minutes on the treadmill, 20 minutes on the bike, and 20 minutes of strength training.

"My wife still works, so I can't sit around all day watching television," Stack said. "It'd be a waste."

According to the state's Executive Office of Elder Affairs, the population of residents 60 years and older in Massachusetts is expected to skyrocket over the next 10 years. According to 2000 census figures, there were nearly 1.1 million people in Massachusetts over age 60. The projected population in 2020 is 1.6 million, a 49 percent increase.

Those numbers are prompting senior centers to change how they do business, said Dave P. Stevens, executive director of the Massachusetts Association of Councils on Aging. Stevens said the group has been getting "boomer ready" for the past five years. (The baby boom generation encompasses those born between 1946 and 1964.)

"The population is coming, and they are going to have a different set of needs and demands than the other generations," Stevens said.

Senior advocates say many baby boomers are financially secure, more active, and will not be content sitting around a meeting room. Instead, they will be looking to keep active and engaged.

"They are more conscious of health and fitness," said Sharon Mercurio, director of the Pepperell Council on Aging. "Bingo is not going to cut it for the 60-year-olds."

Nava Niv-Vogel, director of the Belmont Council on Aging, said boomers have told her they are looking for fitness and wellness programs, continuing education, and new experiences. She said programs have been somewhat limited because the town does not have a permanent center.

Belmont is planning a new senior center, a process that has taken several years. The town currently leases space at Our Lady of Mercy for the center. The space is dark and cramped and cannot offer meal service, Niv-Vogel said. The new center will provide plenty of space for the health and fitness programs boomers are craving, she said. And there will be a performance area and travel opportunities, she said.

"It's going to be an opportunity, from our perspective, to expand programs and to facilitate our ability to serve the emerging needs of the newly aging population as well as our current aging folks," Niv-Vogel said.

Construction is expected to start this spring.

In addition to offering new and different programs to attract younger seniors, centers are making other changes. Some centers are offering lighter food instead of the customary comfort food meal for lunch and others hope to change their hours.

Mercurio said the town conducted a survey last year that found many younger seniors are still working and would like the center open in the evening or on weekends. She said the town had a grant last summer that allowed the center to stay open late one night a week, and it was extremely popular. The grant ran out and the center is now open only weekdays.

"When it was open at night, I was seeing new younger seniors," Mercurio said. She said funding is her biggest obstacle.

Funding pressures are only expected to increase as more baby boomers turn to these centers, Stevens said. Centers must come up with a way to continue offering services to the older generations of seniors but also pay for innovative programs that will attract the younger ones, he said.

Stevens said most centers started charging fees for some programs about 10 years ago and that will probably continue. Services such as counseling and outreach work are typically free, but programs like computer classes or Tai Chi lessons may be extra.

Lynne Brown-Zounes, director of the Lowell Senior Center, also said funding is a constant issue.

She said the state funds city and town senior centers using a formula that is based on the number of people over 60. The state pays $6.30 a year for each senior. She said the city and grants make up the rest of the center's budget.

She said she does her best with what she has, and a big part of that is providing an upbeat environment where seniors of all ages feel welcome.

With the changing demographics, Brown-Zounes said, she is seeing for the first time children and parents, seniors ranging from 60 to 100 years, coming to the center, together.

"There is a stigma about senior centers - that they are full of old, frail people with walkers playing bingo," she said. "No one's been to this senior center if they think that's happening."

The Lowell center is three years old, open seven days a week, and has its own chef. Seniors there are taking strength training classes, learning Spanish, signing up for trips to Hawaii, and learning more about health and wellness, Brown-Zounes said.

But she pointed out that a senior center is not just a place where seniors go to have fun. It's also one-stop shopping for resources in the community. Center workers and volunteers read mail for seniors, help them apply for fuel assistance and food stamps, prepare taxes, and offer counseling.

The center's slogan used to be, "The elderly are the number one priority." Now, it's "Where seniors learn, exercise, and have fun."

"We changed that to give a better sense of what's happening in the center," Brown-Zounes said. "Once people come in, they realize it's not their grandmother's senior center. My job is to get rid of that stigma."

Jennifer Fenn Lefferts can be reached at jflefferts@yahoo.com.