Longtime Sedro-Woolley Senior Center director to retire
SEDRO-WOOLLEY - Ellen Schweigert has spent the past 29 years as facilities coordinator at the Sedro-Woolley Senior Center.
She will retire from the position Wednesday.
"I used to say I'm going to become a senior in my own senior center to meet the 60-year-old requirement," Schweiger said. When I did, I had to change my story and say I grew up in this place because I feel like I did."
Before taking the Senior Center job in 1997, Schweigert worked at County Meadow Village Retirement Community.
On Wednesday afternoons, she would hop behind the steering wheel of the facility's bus to take residents to the Senior Center for dancing to live music.
While the retirement community's residents danced, Schweigert helped serve refreshments.
That's how she got to know the Senior Center's staff. When a position opened at the center, she applied and got the job.
"I didn't expect to be here for nearly 30 years," she said. "I've loved each job I had before this job, and to me I was always going to work with seniors and that's what I've done, just in different capacities.
"I just feel like everybody has their own stories, their own history, background, and I love to hear and honor them."
The Senior Center is a hub of activity for the Sedro-Woolley's older residents.
"This community is extremely proud of this facility," Schweigert said. "They built it with, you know, volunteer labor. I hear stories all the time about people that contributed, gave money, or worked on it. It has been a focal point for a long time."
Schweigert led a myriad of programs centered on seniors, including day trips, celebrations on holidays, art classes and informational sessions.
Since her arrival, she has made a lot of improvements, including to the facility's sign and reader board on the facility's south side.
She designed and put in gardens, growing such items as strawberries, herbs and flowers, and worked with fellow members of the Sedro-Woolley Rotary Club to put in a porch, cement patio and walkways.
Her final major project was the construction of a bocci court completed last summer.
When Schweigert started at the center, there were about 18 seniors coming for lunch. Now that number is more like 50 or 60.
"It really gets used a lot and there's a lot of need," Schweigert said of the facility. "There's a lot of need because it's a gathering place. It's a good place for these folks to get together and talk and reminisce."
The Senior Center relies on volunteers, and Schweigert said hers are fabulous. Most volunteer for years.
"We're flexible with our volunteers, but can always use more," she said. "There's never enough. We probably average about 700 hours of volunteer time per month. It's pretty much what keeps things together. We love our volunteers. They're great."
The city of Sedro-Woolley will take over operations of the Senior Center from Skagit County on Aug. 1.
What does that mean for the center's future?
"Well, things are changing right now and we really don't know much about that," Schweigert said. "But I'd like to see even more here. I was never able to work on a Saturday. Seniors, they're home every day so I would love to see this (position) kind of morph into having part-time Saturday, having a Saturday morning gathering or something in the evening once in a while because we just don't have that flexibility at the moment."
Schweigert said she will still be around, just not inside the Senior Center on a regular basis.
"I will still be very connected to this place because I have friends here," she said. "All the seniors are friends, and all the volunteers that I've got to know over the years are friends.
"They're all saying, 'Oh, we're going to miss you when you're gone. Well, I'll be calling and checking in to see how it's going. And if they're desperate, I'm only a phone call away."
Now Schweigert will have a chance to volunteer more regularly and work at home in her extensively landscaped yard and manicured flower garden.
"I believe in volunteering," she said. "It's important. I would just love to go anywhere in the world as a Rotarian and say, 'Hey, I'm here to help.' So I don't think I'll be sitting around wondering what to do and where to go. I've always been a very forward thinker when it comes to planning."
While she'll miss some aspects of the job, others she will not.
"I've enjoyed every day working here," she Schweigert said. "I've never gotten up in the morning and said I don't want to go. On the flip side of that, not getting up in the morning, but just going out and having coffee in my garden is very appealing."
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This story was originally published July 10, 2026 at 5:59 PM.