TWIN FALLS — The Twin Falls Senior Center closed Mid- March of this past year and on Monday they finally opened their doors to welcome back guests for the first time.
Before the reopening, many senior citizens were having very similar experiences of having to be in isolation. Senior Center guest, Mary Lee Spiers said, “It's been very confining...very confining, home a lot.”
Another guest, Deanna Baxter added, “We didn’t go to any of our kids' functions, we stayed home by ourselves for the holidays and Christmas. So, yeah, it’s been a long year.”
Now that the senior center is open, they are primarily offering lunch
Monday through Friday 12:00 pm- 2:00 pm and an exercise class that runs Monday, Wednesday, Friday from 10:30 am-11:30 am.
Executive Director of the Senior Center, Donna Forsythditmore said, “It’s just a team here. Everyone is just so willing...all they want to do is help the seniors and do what they can for the seniors.”
For a lot of the residents coming back and taking advantage of what the center is providing, it is refreshing to be back face to face and having regular social interactions once again.
Deanna Baxter said, “Just sitting and meeting people and visiting with everybody. Because I’m a people person, always have been and I really missed that.”
Senior citizens are not the only ones thrilled to be back, the staff is just as happy to be able to serve the community again. “The heart that these people have that work in the kitchen and do all of these things. I mean the excitement here, it’s just so cool,” said Forsythditmore.
Although the center is open mainly for the exercise course and lunch, the staff hopes to be able to provide more activities and resources in the near future.
Forsythditmore said, “They do Ticket Tuesdays and Thunder Thursdays and they’ll do bingo on Fridays. They’re starting to kind of incorporate that in. We’re looking also to, in the past we’ve had entertainment during the lunch hour. So we’ll have some local musicians come play the piano or the organ.”
For lunch, the senior center is limiting the number of people allowed per day to 50, yet thus far they have yet to meet that demand since some senior citizens still have been a bit cautious about returning. However, many of the guests are encouraging others to come down when they feel comfortable enough.
Deanna Baxter said, “Anybody over 60 years old, come and try us out. The more people that come, the more activities they will try and have again.”
Reservations do need to be made for lunch and that can be done by calling 208-734-5084.
