Palmer seniors celebrate 32nd year

PALMER — Though the new building is wonderful, necessary and great for the organization, Rachel Greenberg still has some fondness for the old Palmer Senior Center.

“We went over to the old building about a month ago and tears came to my eyes,” she said.

Which is understandable. Although she’s been with the organization for 19 years now doing business as Mat-Su Senior Services, she’s only worked in the new building for one year. Saturday, the organization is hosting a special dinner featuring dancing, a live band and an auction.

“We are serving cordon bleu and a full meal deal. It’s pretty cool,” Greenberg said. “We’ve got dinner. We’re hoping to do some dancing. We’ve got a band coming.”

The official announcement says the celebration marks both the one-year anniversary of the new center’s opening and the 32 years that came before.

As someone who’s experienced nearly two thirds of those years, Greenberg said that really the tale of the Palmer Senior Center is one of expansion.

“When I started we had three people going to adult day services. Now we can take up to 40. When I started we had five home-delivered meals. We are now doing over 180. When I started we had one-and-a-half care coordinators. We now have eight,” she said.

Also, there used to be only three vans, now there are more than 20. They’ve also added services like the caregiver and exercise programs. Moving into the new center has only increased that expansion. In addition to growing the programs, there is room for a few more.

“Since we’ve gotten into this building, we actually have an exercise room — a dedicated exercise room,” Greenberg said.

Exercise is important, she said, both as preventative health care and to help avoid catastrophic things events like seniors falling down.

Greenberg is looking forward to the Saturday dance. She said the auction includes a painting from a Hawaiian artist who works with spray paint and two round-trip Alaska Railroad tickets to Seward, good until next September.

“It should be lots of fun,” she said.

Contact reporter Andrew Wellner at andrew.wellner@frontiersman.com or 352-2270.

WHAT: Mat-Su Senior Services first anniversary dinner and dance.

WHEN: 6 to 10 p.m., Saturday.

WHERE: At the Palmer senior center, 831 S. Chugach St.

COST: $25 per person.

For more information, call 745-5454.