Seniors’ Club Seeks Funds and Recruits

Driven by a desire to learn about aging, Dinah Cole has been attending senior citizens’ centers since she was 35. Nearly 20 years later, she has applied her knowledge by helping form a senior citizens club at a South-Central church.

“We need (a center) in this area because seniors have nowhere to go,” said Cole, 54, who is helping recruit members for the club. “We have to travel by bus, and transportation around here isn’t so great.”

Cole is among the first members of the Grace Community Seniors Center at 936 W. Vernon Ave. Located in a parsonage adjoining the Grace Lutheran Church, the center opened Aug. 30.

The center, which currently has only limited services such as recreation, is hoping to raise money to start a lunch program and provide social and health services, said Lenious Davis Jr., vice president of the club. Senior citizens are asked to pay a $3 annual membership fee.

“In this particular part of the city, there’s nothing” for senior citizens, Davis said. “We want to put our finger on agencies that can help.”

So far, the club has received a $10,000 grant from Lutheran Social Services of Southern California that was used to paint and remodel the parsonage.

Among the agencies Davis hopes to work with is the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology at USC. The school is working with the center to have it designated an internship site, according to a school official.

For now, Davis and the other 15 members are recruiting other senior citizens by going door to door and posting flyers describing the center in English and Spanish throughout the neighborhood.

Information: (213) 234-9722.