The Saratoga Senior Center normally provides hundreds of local residents with a place to socialize, exercise, or get a hot meal. But during the COVID-19 pandemic, the facility had to change the way it operates. For the latest installment of WAMC’s series on aging, reporter Lucas Willard learned about one of the critical services the senior center provides, even as its financial future remains uncertain.
On a recent Thursday morning, Doug and Ruth Karrel make the rounds in their little blue hatchback — me crunched in the back with my microphone and few bags of groceries. Before pulling up to the curb, they dial each of the seniors on their list.
“Good morning…”
“Good morning, Inez, this is Doug and Ruthie from the Senior Center. How are you this morning…”
The Karrels are volunteers with the Saratoga Senior Center. On Thursday, they help package and deliver deliver bags of groceries to homebound residents.
Inez Tillman is getting a visit today.
“Come on in…”
“Hi Inez!”
Tillman, who is 85, is happy to see Doug come to the door. A longtime Saratoga Springs resident, she said she used to do volunteer work and would take in those needing help in her younger days.
“It ain’t all about you and me, it’s about somebody else. That’s the way I look at it. It ain’t about what you do for yourself, it’s about other people,” said Tillman.
In partnership with Saratoga County Office for the Aging, the Senior Center used to host a hot lunch every weekday. But that meals program calm to a halt in March when the COVID-19 pandemic prevented people from gathering in the building.
So volunteers mobilized and the senior center became an important player in checking in on and offering assistance to seniors especially vulnerable to the virus.
Now, on Thursdays, the day starts with volunteers picking up boxes of produce and other goods from the Regional Food Bank of Northeastern New York.
By 9:30 a.m., a line of volunteers sort and package the groceries for home delivery and drive-by pickup.
Lawrence Barisic is the senior center’s volunteer coordinator.
“We deliver 85 bags to the community. And another 80 people come and pick up curbside, so we do a total of 165 to 170 a week,” said Barisic.
Barisic is grateful for the volunteers who show up each week to make sure local seniors are fed.
“We have a great community in Saratoga. If you ask, they come. But you always need more.”
Lou Schneider, a veteran who walks over as grocery bags are being placed outside, agrees.
“It is a very strong community. We get together, we like it. Unfortunately, it’s a little different this month than it was a year ago. Things change,” said Schneider.
Schneider used to stop by often for activities at the senior center – and during the warmer months, programs like art classes were brought outside.
While Schneider was disappointed things aren’t like they were, he says he’s not that worried about the virus.
“You know, at my age, at 89, I’m not worried about anything. What’s going to happen is going to happen,” laughs Schneider.
But management at the senior center is worried about its financial future. As the center has had to adapt operations over the last several months, it’s also needed to find new ways to raise money.
Recently, the Saratoga Springs City Counciladopted a Fiscal Year 2021 city budget that cuts its share of funding to the senior center by 50 percent – around $50,000. Other non-profits supported by the city saw a greater cut of around 60 percent.
The Saratoga Senior Center also received a 75 percent cut in the $5,000 in aid it has requested from the county.
The center’s Executive Director Lois Celeste has been trying to get the city council to restore its full funding request of $104,000 – a significant chunk of the center’s annual budget. Before the pandemic, the senior center was projecting $950,000 in revenues for the year, but 2020 is projected to finish with around $786,000 in revenues, with even less expected in 2021, according to Celeste.
“So we have to work together. We have to. And we will go forward,” said Celeste.
The city’s annual budget that takes effect in January can be amended.
Celeste is hoping city residents and supporters rally behind the senior center's annual appeal. She says the non-profit, which operates in a building owned by the city, has had fundraising efforts hampered by the pandemic since people can’t gather indoors for traditional events.
“We’re just not allowed to. Now, we can bump some things out into the fall or late summer and hope that we have a vaccine and hope that those kind of things, but yeah, the toughest time will be the beginning of the year, and hoping we have some revenue, some money,” said Celeste.
Celeste said the senior center received a PPP loan in the spring to help support its employees, but without another round of federal stimulus funding, she said it may become difficult to pay staff who are already stretched thin.
Celeste says she wants to ensure the Saratoga Senior Center, first formed in 1955, is around for at least another 65 years.
“You know, we’re all going to get old some day. And you’ve got to have some sort of a resource to help when you get old.”
