BUENA PARK : Senior Center Marks Ten Years of Service

As the group of seniors reminisced about the last 10 years at the Buena Park Senior Day Care Center, Gertrude Weiner started to cry.

A newcomer to the daytime program for the elderly with memory or physical disabilities, Weiner expressed her gratitude to the staff.

“The girls are so attentive,” said Weiner, 81, who is in a wheelchair and lives with her daughter in Buena Park. “When you’re not well, you want someone near you all the time. . . . Here, your mind is taken off your troubles.”

Employees and participants last week celebrated a decade of service to the community. The program, geared toward those 60 and older who have Alzheimer’s disease, Parkinson’s disease or other ailments, offers seniors a place to go for activities such as cooking and exercise classes, music and dancing, crafts, bingo and movies.

Many of the clients live with their families and cannot be home alone while their care-givers are at work or take time for themselves, said Director Helen M. Bohen.

The day-care program, sponsored by Feedback Foundation Inc., an Anaheim nonprofit organization that provides meals and other assistance to the elderly, opened at the Buena Park Senior Center Oct. 23, 1983.

Back then, the program was a new concept to enhance the lives of aging adults while giving support and respite care for their families, Bohen said. Today, more than a dozen nonprofit day-care programs are offered throughout Orange County, along with privately run programs, Bohen said.

“It’s a growing need. We’re getting more and more people requesting information because seniors are living longer, but they’re not able to live by themselves,” she said.

Bohen said the program opened with Bohen said a benefit of the program is that it helps stimulate seniors by keeping their minds and bodies active.

Bohen said participants also get involved in special projects such as community outreach. This year, they are making baskets for the homeless to give away at Christmas.

“It gives them a feeling of being productive, that they’re still needed and wanted and that they can still do things,” she said.

Seniors said they enjoy going to the center because of the personal attention and socializing with others.

“I come here to be with people. I just like to be with company,” said Audrey Mitchum, 78, who lives with her daughter in Garden Grove.

Tomi Shaddix, 84, has been coming to the center for four years. It’s become her second home, she said.

“I never miss a day,” said Shaddix, who lives with her grandson in Buena Park. “It’s a wonderful place for senior citizens. We’re very lucky to have a place like this. . . . We’re one big family.”