Greenwich Senior Center expands programming to reach younger population

Kerry Bobick rushed into the dining room of the Greenwich Senior Center Thursday evening, shedding her coat just as a tai chi class was getting under way.

Bobick, 53, who was coming from work as surgical coordinator at Orthopedic & Neurosurgery Specialists in Greenwich, joined her 80-year-old mother, Mary Heminway, in the class. Bobick herself had never taken a class at the Senior Center before -- its usual 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. hours haven't fit her schedule.

That is slowly starting to change, as the center is taking the first steps to attract younger, more active seniors. This month, it started holding a session of one if its most popular classes, tai chi, at 5:15 p.m. on Thursdays.

Laurette Helmrich, Senior Center administrator, said the center is starting to provide new options for the emerging senior population, made up mostly of aging baby boomers who haven't yet retired.

"We're starting with a program that is already very popular," Helmrich said of evening classes.

Attendance at the evening class has been small, with about a dozen people.

"I wish there were more (evening classes), but once is better than nothing," said Bobick, of Cos Cob.

Greenwich residents 55 and older can join the senior center, though Helmrich said children can accompany their over-55 parents to classes and lunch, and help them acclimate.

The move is coming at a time when senior centers around the country have been reinventing themselves.

In July, the Junior League of Greenwich presented a report to the town's Commission on Aging detailing the changing characteristics of the town's senior population, and giving suggestions for new models that the center could adopt.

The report noted that the senior population will grow steadily from 2010, and that it will be fairly young -- about 66 percent of households headed by seniors will be headed by someone between 60 and 74 years old -- and suggested rebranding the center around programs with an emphasis on lifetime learning, health education, financial planning or a cafe model that is smaller and has programs based around casual meal service.

Sam Deibler, director of the town's Commission on Aging, said the center has been using information from the Junior League's report, as well as from the results of a survey that went out in 2008 to 4,000 Greenwich households comprising people 60 to 80 years old, to come up with new programs. It has added more fitness classes, including water aerobics using the pool at the Boys & Girls Club of Greenwich, and a Zumba class, which combines Latin dance moves with aerobics, and is one of the latest fitness crazes. People still continue to fill the cafeteria each afternoon for the center's $3 lunches.

Deibler said they have already seen a 15 percent increase in use of the center in the last year.

"Obviously, this is a bit of a difference from people in the past, who might have joined and intended to come for an entire day," Deibler said. "Now we're seeing more people who are coming for the specific content of the programs."

The 2008 survey also found that seniors wanted the 26,000-square-foot center on Greenwich Avenue, which also houses the Greenwich Arts Council, to be expanded. Although a proposal to move the senior center across the street to the Havemeyer Building was discussed, it never took off. Since then, the center has focused more on program development, Deibler said.

Next month, the senior center will hold a free workshop called "Rescuing Your Retirement," which will provide information on adapting retirement plans to current financial realities, managing health care costs and funding college expenses. Deibler said the workshop is geared not only to retirees, but older adults who won't be leaving the workforce for several years. It could also attract more people to the senior center.

"Our hope is that by doing this kind of programming, people will come in and say, `Gee, I want to try water-borne exercises, or Zumba,'" Deibler said.

Staff Writer Lisa Chamoff can be reached at lisa.chamoff@scni.com or 203-625-4439.