Onion Creek Senior Center executive director Sandra Grizzle reviews architectural plans for a 6,300-square-foot building the organization plans to build. The senior center’s annual membership meeting is March 10. (Photo by Jennifer Biundo)
by JENNIFER BIUNDO
Hopefully, it’s a service that we’ll all get to use one day.
The Onion Creek Senior Citizens Center is gearing up for its 28th annual meeting on March 10. Leaders hope the auction fundraiser will give them a jumpstart to begin construction of a long-awaited new building to serve the community.
With the help of local contractor Eric Cromwell, senior center directors have developed plans to construct a new 6,300-square-foot building adjacent to the county-owned space they currently occupy on FM 2770 in Buda. The new proposed center would include a large main room with a stage, a crafts and quilting room, a lounge space, kitchen and small office.
Though fundraising efforts will contribute to the total, ultimately the building project will likely have to rely on loans and community grants, said Executive Director Sandra Grizzle. They also hope to raise funds by renting out the new space for parties and receptions.
Though they’re all senior citizens, the members span a full generation, with some spring chickens in their late 50s, ranging up to the oldest member, Cecil Clark, who recently celebrated his 98th birthday.
Currently, the senior center provides a gathering space for about 200 members of the community, who come together to socialize, play games of cards and dominos, sew quilts and share meals. Most importantly, Grizzle said, it allows the older members of the community to forge new relationships.
“If you’re not involved in the school, it’s hard to meet people when you move to a new town,” Grizzle said. “Your neighbors may be younger. They go to work and you’re home all day. To meet people, you need a place to go.”
Member Bill Burrell and his wife have been coming to the senior center for six years, and enjoy playing cards and socializing.
“It’s a nice way to meet people,” Burrell said. “Quite a few people I definitely wouldn’t have met any place but here. It brings people together.”
For many retired residents of Hays County, the region’s rapid growth can erode the natural sense of community and make it harder to meet new friends, Grizzle said. Fortunately, that growth has also yielded plenty of new members of the senior center, many of whom are relatively young spring chickens in their 60s or 70s.
“We’re gaining new members all the time, with all the people moving in,” Grizzle said. “Every week we seem to have somebody new.”
And for the oldest members, many of whom are grappling with loneliness after losing their spouse after a half-century or more of marriage, the social connection that they find at the senior center could literally extend their lives. Grizzle says she reaches out to recently widowed seniors, urging them to come out for lunch or a game of cards.
Research findings back up that claim. A recent report in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior examined the health and social networks of senior citizens, finding that those who felt socially isolated also reported poorer physical health and mental well-being, while a strong social network was correlated with better health.
The business meeting begins at 9:30 a.m., with an auction fundraiser following at 10:30 a.m. Incumbents JoAnn Keller and Carolynn Hesser and newcomer Donna Sinner are running uncontested for three open board seats. A fajita lunch will be served, with tickets costing $8.
