Staff photo/ Brian Larsen The senior citizen center in Grand Marais is a busy place with lots of practical and fun events taking place. Bill Shaffer (top), Warren Anderson (middle) and Bev Green (bottom) are busy discussing upcoming events and plans for the future. Both Anderson and Shaffer serve on the board of directors while Green is in charge of day-to-day operations.
“We love to have kids around,” Bev Green said while discussing recent improvements and new programs at the Grand Marais Senior Center. “In fact, we feel like this is more of a community center than a senior center.”
Most people know about the center’s lunch program and its meals on wheels for seniors who are home bound. And all of the work volunteers do helping to prepare taxes. But the center is more than that.
If a senior needs advice from an attorney, one is provided by Northeastern Minnesota Legal Aid and is available to answer questions from 12:00 – 1:00 p.m. on the third Tuesday of each month. Medicare information and a Medicare counselor are also made available on a monthly basis.
“We provide emergency phones and other call devices to county residents,” noted Green, adding, “These pendants, wristbands and phones summon medical help when there is a problem.”
This service costs $30 per month and is invaluable to seniors who live on their own.
Also offered is transportation to out-of-county medical appointments for seniors needing a ride. The center hosts medical personnel who give flu shots before the flu season, and a foot care clinic is conducted monthly. Blood pressure and blood sugar checks are also scheduled regularly.
A Wii interactive computer game, purchased by a Sawtooth Elementary School third grade class and given to the center, is very popular. The facility also has mentors who will come in and read to classes of elementary school children, Green said.
Recently Mark Dayton made his Grand Marais appearance at the senior center. He is not the only politician to visit the center: Jim Oberstar and Doug Johnson held meetings there when they were in office.
Church group and Girl Scouts also use the building at times and Santa Claus manages to show up just before Christmas to get his picture taken with children every year.
Most Tuesday nights a citizen forum is held in the building to discuss politics or issues affecting our county, state and country.
The Memorial Blood Center of Duluth aka “the blood mobile,” also uses the center’s parking lot. The parking lot is also the starting spot for Minnesota driver exams and AARP driver safety programs.
Inside, the lunch room becomes a place to play cards and board games when meals aren’t being served.
The senior center also has a 20-passenger bus and schedules trips—one is off soon to Bentleyville in Duluth. Once or twice a year the bus heads for places like Sault St. Marie or takes riders on shorter ventures like the annual leaf tour.
“We encourage kids to come with their parents on bus tours,” Green said.
When the Bushman family recently came back from Washington to visit they met about 100 well-wishers at the senior center. Graduating seniors have also rented space to host graduation parties and a number of anniversary, birthday, and baby shower celebrations have been held there.
The building then, is truly a gathering place for all in the community.
A board of directors assists Green and her staff with maintenance and planning. One of those directors is Bill Shaffer. Shaffer said he has been helping install new energy-saving lights, among other things, and Warren Anderson, another director, was part of a team that picked out a new high efficiency boiler that now heats the building. “We have four programmable thermostats and the windows have now been properly insulated,” noted Anderson.
“We have a board of directors that works on projects. We don’t just meet and talk,” Shaffer added.
Recent winds loosened some shingles and they have been repaired, noted Anderson. The board is getting emergency phones installed and is repairing ones that need fixing, Other equipment is being fixed as funds come in, said Anderson, adding, “If you would like to make a donation to the center, we would appreciate it.”
Thecounty pays, “A little over 50 percent for salaries. We have gotten less from them the last five years and they would like us to become financially independent,” Anderson said.
Toward that end the board of directors and Green are always on the lookout for grants and other ways to fund the activities and building.
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