The Seattle Times ran an article today on the impending closing of the Wallingford Senior Center that includes some more background on the situation. Apparently, the center, which was founded in 1979 and serves 1,500 people, is in arrears to the tune of $70,000. It’s annual budget of $300,000 comes from a mix of public and private funding. Unfortunately, with the economy the way it is, the 40% they’ve traditionally raised from private donors has shrunk to 13%:
“The senior center is not well funded, and when the economy tanked, it made it worse,” Director Kathleen Cromp said. “The financial situation is intractable, and this is a year when we could not get traction with fundraising.”
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OKAY NEIGHBORS…. let’s chip in & get this bill paid up for our senior neighbors…. send what you can asap… show your Wallingford community spirit in a time of need
4649 Sunnyside Ave. North Suite 140
Seattle, WA 98103 ….check out their website at http://www.wallingfordseniors.org/…. one day we will al may need a place to meet & greet…. Save the Wallingford Senior Center!
Yr link is broken– should be http://www.wallingfordseniors.org/ .
So here’s a question: could a Wallingford Community Center (with a budget) provide some of the services lost when the Senior Center closes?
http://www.wallyhood.org/2009/09/wallingford-community-center/
What if the Wallingford Senior Center got re-funded for now and served as the germ of the forthcoming Wallingford Community Center . . . there already is a building there, it’s where people meet and eat and dance and study and . . . it’s a place in the center (one center anyway) of the community if one sees Wallingford as stretching to 65th.
This would be a community center start with a few walls, and then look around to see what already exists in terms of meeting space and end up with a whole- community-serving cluster of centers. Where’s the Wallingford Community Center? Everywhere.
Wallyhood: how many people would need to send in how much to realize the initial $70,ooo?
Cheers, Wannabe urban planner
The problem is that all of the senior centers in the city are underfunded. And when they’re underfunded, people don’t want to go there because the activities aren’t good enough, the customer service is lacking, etc etc. Individual donations can help in the short-term but there needs to be a long term solution to keep these kinds of places open. It’s proven that socialization and friendship actually do lead to happier and healthier lives, especially for older adults. But in a tight economy, these are the kinds of services that get cut, because they don’t appear to be ‘life or death’ services. It’s sad really.
We should all be doing whatever it takes to keep Wallingford Senior Center open. This is our collective future we’re looking at. How about brainstorming ideas to generate revenue on an ongoing basis? With the current economic climate I do not see the city offering up more funding. A couple ideas: seniors could sell crafts (through Etsy or at the center through monthly events) a portion of the proceeds would go to the center. Local coffee shops could adopt their local Senior Center (similar to the “Green Bean” model, a coffee shop on 85th near Greenwood) donation jar at the register or a portion of their profits go to the center (more people would become customers of those shops because they want to support their community). Set up an espresso cart outside the senior center, seniors are trained and donate their time, coffee is donated and 100% of the revenue goes to keep the center open.
More ideas? We need to solve this!