LAKE COUNTY — According to the Area Agency of Aging’s 2020-2024 plan, “Collectively, the senior centers in Lake and Mendocino Counties serve as community focal points for older adults. Services provided include not only outreach to isolated seniors, but also meals (both congregate and home delivered), a delivery point for commodity food stuffs, social activities, opportunities to volunteer, exercise classes, a social connection, and a myriad of opportunities for community involvement.”
The pandemic caused the closing of many of the senior centers around the lake. There’s been a lot of stress on the system but as per the Public Health Officer, Erik McLaughlin, the county is in the green tier now. Senior centers that were closed are now opening up.
Lakeport Senior Center, located at 527 Konocti Ave., is open on a limited basis. It has opened line dancing on Tuesdays at 9 A.M. It’s been open for lunch since January. Lunch is served 11:30 – 12:30, with the doors being open from 11 A.M. to 1 P.M.
“People are really happy to be back,” said Marcella Salisbury, the Meals on Wheels coordinator at the Lakeport Senior Center. “We have a really nice little crowd here. We’re still requiring proof of vaccination but masks are optional.”
Middletown Senior Center, located at 21256 Washington Street, Middletown, is not open, “But we are still serving Meals on Wheels and doing drive-through fresh lunches,” said Lori Tourville, the executive director of the center. “Lunches need to be ordered by 10 A.M. Lunch drive-through is at noon.”
“We hand out approximately 50 hot meal drive-through lunches a day and deliver approximately 50 Meals on Wheels in Middletown, Hidden Valley and Cobb,” said Tourville.
“We have a website: www.middletownseniorcenter.org and we’re on FB, where we post the menus monthly.” Speaking of the menus, Tourville laughed and said with a bit of pride in her voice, “We have the best lunches in Lake County.”
Tourville added, “Although the center is closed, people can come in, one-at-a-time to check out a book or DVDs. They must call for an appointment. We have a full library of DVDs and books. When we closed on March 13, 2020, we wanted to make it so people could come in and get the DVDS and books. They needed some entertainment.”
Live Oak Senior Center, located at 12502 Foothill Blvd. in Clearlake Oaks, has take-away lunches, but no sit down lunches. People must call to order same day take-away lunches between 9 to 10:30 A.M. “We give out 30 to 65 take-away lunches per day depending on how the weather is, how people like the meal,” said Dan Hobbs, the center’s executive director. “We have two full time cooks. The building is open but there are no activities.”
“When COVID gets better, then we’ll open. It’s too high risk now. People are still leery of catching COVID. We have about 20 plus volunteers who do various things: delivery of Meals on Wheels, janitorial service, dishes, cleaning, prep cooking, taking phone calls and handing out meals. All the meals are hot meals. We have really good meals, and they are big. We have an extensive menu. It’s good for the seniors, they love it. Our senior center is big and fairly new. It’s very nice.”
When asked if the center needs volunteers, Hobbs said, “We always need volunteers for passing out meals, taking phone calls and Meals on Wheels drivers.”
Clearlake Senior Center (aka Highlands Senior Service Center), located at 3245 Bowers Ave., is celebrating their 40th anniversary this year. The center is open to seniors Monday to Friday, 10 A.M. to 2P.M. Activities such as Zoomba classes, Tai Chi, low impact aerobics and White Elephant Bingo are scheduled throughout the week.
Monday to Friday, lunches are served from 11:30 to 12:30. They also do “grab and go” lunches daily.
On Wednesday and Friday, the center takes walk-ins, no appointment necessary, for help with preparation of income taxes. North Coast Opportunities is providing staff to help seniors do their taxes.
Commodities are given out on the first Friday of the month from 9:30 to 11:30 A.M.
“Our seniors are our greatest asset in our community,” said Joyce Overton, executive director of the center. “We want to get them back to an active life, and meeting some new friends by having a nutritional meal in our dining room and joining in the activities at the center.”
“We are also looking for volunteer drivers for our Meals on Wheels program,” Overton added. “And we are looking for a volunteer activity coordinator. Volunteering is one of the most rewarding jobs you can have. It keeps your mind active and your body fit. Come join our family at the Clearlake Senior Center.”
Lucerne Alpine Senior Center, located at 3985 Country Club Dr., is not open. Joe Jones, the interim executive director, said the center is being worked on. The bathrooms and kitchen are in the process of being updated. Jones said the center’s goal is to be a full functioning resource center for the community, especially in the case of disaster. The Thrift Shop, which is part of the senior center, has been remodeled and is now open Thursday to Saturday, 11 A.M. to 3 P.M.
Attempts were made to contact the Upper Lake Senior Center and the Kelseyville Senior Center but they did not reply by press time.
