Graham Senior Citizen Center to change name, boost marketability

The Graham Senior Citizen Center soon will be undergoing a name change and over the weekend was cleaned, both of which are part of an effort to help market the center for dates and times it is not in use by seniors in the community.

The building at 825 Fairview St., provides meals for seniors Monday through Friday and is open for senior activities from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The operating expenses for the facility are provided by local donors, the city and through federal funding, according to the Graham Chamber of Commerce website.

“When it was built originally, the purpose of the facility was to be a multi-purpose facility for everybody in the community to be able to use it, including the senior citizens and an emphasis on the senior citizens,” Graham Mayor Neal Blanton said. “Over time, Meals On Wheels is (now) out of that kitchen there and the senior citizens, Monday through Friday, have lunches there, so we felt that it was time to try and start marketing that facility for times it wasn’t being used.”

Blanton said the decision was made both by the committee who oversees the facility and by the suggestion of the benefactor who originally funded the building.

“The Bertha Foundation, which originally built the facility, said why don’t rename it the Graham Activity Center which means it is more of an encompassing type facility and so we decided to do that and on the heels of that we took a hard look at it and the facility really hadn’t been cleaned on a professional level in a long, long time,” Blanton said. “So, we started looking around and we have found a company out of Wichita Falls that does professional cleaning and they are coming today (Friday), and it is about a two-and-a-half day process, but they are going to go through there and they are going to clean everything.”

Blanton said the committee is looking into bidding out cleaning work for the center in the future as an ongoing service. He said as far as senior services go at the center, they will remain unchanged.

“There is no changes whatsoever to the schedule for the senior citizens luncheons or for their activities or anything like that,” Blanton said. “We are just not going to do that. That facility is there for their use and in those times when they are not using, which is at night and on weekends, hopefully we will be able to promote it and some other people will be able to use it.”

For the rest of the story, see the Wednesday, Aug. 28 edition of The Graham Leader.