Senior Services will still provide downtown meals if Olympia Center is sold, director says
The executive director of Senior Services for South Sound wants the public to know its downtown presence won’t be disappearing, even if its current location is sold by the city of Olympia.
A few weeks have passed since the Olympia City Council received a briefing on the idea of expanding a plan for a regional aquatics facility into a west side community hub that would include the aquatic center, selling The Olympia Center downtown and moving its services west. No solid plans have been made yet.
Senior Services, located inside The Olympia Center, has become less accessible to seniors, executive director Brian Windrope said during the Feb. 28 meeting. The population of people they serve is growing, he said, and having dedicated space for seniors is vital, but some seniors aren’t comfortable coming to the downtown location due to safety concerns.
However, Windrope said in an interview with The Olympian on March 10 that as excited as the nonprofit is to better serve seniors in west Olympia, they’re not interested in exchanging one location for the other. The senior population isn’t just expanding on the west side, he said. There is a large and growing number of seniors living downtown who are looking for enrichment opportunities.
“Our support for being on the west side is contingent on our understanding that we’ll be able to maintain a partnership with the city and have a presence downtown,” Windrope said.
Windrope said the nonprofit provides more than 1,300 meals for seniors weekly, and for some, lunchtime at The Olympia Center is one of their only chances to socialize. If the center is sold, Windrope said he’ll work with the city to find a new downtown location for meals and activities for seniors.
Windrope said The Olympia Center was built 50 years ago in part to serve seniors. If there’s no downtown presence, he said it might be hard for people living in Olympia proper to access services. He said people might be more tempted to go to the Virgil Clarkson Senior Center in Lacey.
Windrope said Senior Services is a unique nonprofit because it helps not just those in need, but those who are thriving. The nonprofit offers senior trips both locally and internationally as well as music and academic classes. He said its ukulele class is packed.
The nonprofit also has a Meals on Wheels program where fully prepared meals are delivered to people’s homes. The service isn’t provided just for those seniors below a certain income level, Windrope said. The main criteria is the recipients’ ability to cook for themselves. It could be due to income, disability, an accident, or other reasons.
The Olympia Center and Senior Services were brought up during the Arts Commission’s latest meeting March 9. Windrope said Anna Schlecht is leading an effort to add art to public spaces in Olympia, one of them being the downtown center.
The idea is to paint an “Arc of Aging” in the hallway seniors use to get to lunch. It will consist of a rainbow that features humans aging, from babies to toddlers, to adults and finally seniors, showing how everyone ages and has different needs at different times of their lives.
This story was originally published March 14, 2023 at 5:00 AM.
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