MOORPARK : Woman to Run Senior Center

A Thousand Oaks woman who spent 25 years working on behalf of children in the Los Angeles Unified School District has decided to spend her retirement working on behalf of Moorpark’s elderly as the city’s first senior center coordinator. Carol Ghens, 57, was hired earlier this month to run the center at 799 Moorpark Ave.

After retiring from Los Angeles schools a year ago, where she most recently worked as a recreation manager, Ghens decided to look for work at area senior centers and discovered the $20,000-a-year opportunity in Moorpark.

“I liked the idea of working at a senior center and had been inquiring,” she said. “I’d like to contribute to helping seniors. We all get older, my dad is 83 and in fantastic health, and there are a lot of things that seniors need.”

Motivated by a desire to offer more to local seniors, Ghens said she is looking at ways to expand programs offered,which now include bingo games, recreational trips and brown bag lunches held at the center.

“I’d like to see us go into areas of fitness and health, more arts and crafts, maybe some drama or dance, a senior band or chorus,” Ghens said. “I’d like to see a diverse list of activities that we are able to offer from this center.”

In cooperation with the Simi Valley Adult School, the center will begin monthly health screening exams for people 60 years and older. The free screening--a $2 donation is suggested--includes skin-cancer testing, a foot exam, diabetes and blood pressure checks, and vision screening.

The city took over day-to-day management of the center from Moorpark Senior Citizens Inc. in October, Mayor Paul Lawrason said, and immediately began a search for someone to be on-site from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on weekdays. The mayor said the city wanted someone to broaden the offerings to the city’s 1,400 to 1,800 seniors.

Although the city has high hopes for the facility, it has yet to give Ghens the approval to do much, other than search for grant money or donations to finance new programs. Because she has no discretionary funds or employees, she must rely on a network of volunteers and solicit contributions from area business leaders.

“I’m going to be searching for local businesses to maybe adopt a program,” Ghens said. “It’s a challenge, and I think, to a certain extent, we can meet it. I don’t know how fast, but each day more falls into place.”

Lawrason said the city’s immediate goal was getting a coordinator to open and close the center and that financial support will follow in coming years.

“The facility is there, the membership is there, certain equipment and so forth come with the facility,” the mayor said. “There are lots of things that can be done there on little or no budget.”