Time to sign up/renew Senior Center memberships

— from Lena Kassa for Orcas Senior Center —

What do you miss most about the Senior Center being closed during these days of the pandemic? The coffee and community that comes together inside the front door? The opportunity to visit with friends and share stories? Exercise classes? Access to the athletic center? Trips off-island? Noon lunches?

While many of the Center’s activities have been on hold since mid-March, the Orcas Senior Center continues delivering valuable services to our island’s aging population. In fact, the need is more acute now than ever before.

Just like your membership.

That’s why, in August, we’ll be reaching out to folks like you asking for your Orcas Senior Center membership renewal (and your membership if you’re not already a member), because even in a pandemic, even with our doors closed your senior center is still making a difference in people’s lives.

Instead of serving lunch three times a week at the Center, volunteers are delivering upwards of 50 meals on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday to homes from one end of the island to the other.

With limitations on in-home visitations, the Center’s Hearts and Hands program has been augmented with a Buddy Check-In system that matches one caller with one senior for regular phone check-ins, ensuring no one feels alone as we continue to hunker down in-place.

And, in part thanks to a 2019 grant from the Orcas Island Community Foundation, the Center’s Foot Care program, in refurbished surroundings and with pandemic precautions in place, is once again scheduling clients.

So, we’re asking: Please renew. You can renew online and enjoy the benefits of belonging to your Orcas Senior Center with the knowledge that we’ll be here long after the pandemic ends with programs that enrich, services that nurture, and community that keeps us connected.