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Former township trustee receives room dedication at Austintown Senior Center
AUSTINTOWN
Austintown Senior Center seniors, township trustees and residents gathered at the senior center to honor former township Trustee Lisa Oles with a room dedication in the center and a plaque in her honor.
Trustee Jim Davis said he was overjoyed to present the Lisa Oles Senior Education Center.
“When I became trustee in 2010, this was still a dream and a vision of somebody – and that person was Lisa,” Davis said. “This is the dream of Lisa Oles – to have this place for seniors to gather.”
Oles, now a Colorado resident, and a group of volunteers began the process of getting a senior center started in 2010 and later took the idea to the polls, securing a levy to continue support.
Gloria Habib, a member of the committee that hired Austintown Senior Center director Jim Henshaw, said she could not say enough about Oles.
“She is the most wonderful person, and she worked very, very hard and was concerned about us from the beginning,” Habib said.
JoAnn Claycomb, one of the original members at the start of the senior center, said she owes much gratitude to Oles for helping the shut-ins of the Austintown community.
“Without you, us seniors would be sitting home looking at those four walls,” Claycomb said.
“Today, our seniors can come out to play.”
Mark Cole of Austintown Generational Enrichment, a nonprofit agency, said the senior center had become the savior center since its beginning.
Gary Brant, another original senior center supporter and now bingo caller at the center, said in the beginning many seniors observed other centers to get ideas to incorporate – but found nothing in comparison to what they have now.
“This is the greatest center I have ever went to and I can honestly say nobody had anything like we have,” Brandt said.
Leo Connelly, Oles’s uncle and a past commander of the Disabled American Veterans, said he was grateful for the miracle of the Austintown Senior Center and the Westchester building, not only for the sake of the senior community, but also for the Terlecky family’s veteran: John Terlecky Jr., a second lieutenant in World War II, died in battle at 21. The family donated the Westchester building to the township.
“It’s because of his sacrifice and the sacrifice of all my brothers and sisters that didn’t make it home that we can sit here and enjoy the generosity of the Terlecky family,” Connelly said. Oles said the award isn’t about her, but about the team she was blessed with that worked tirelessly to provide various senior services to the Austintown community.
“My heart is completely swelled with gratitude. I am truly overwhelmed and blessed,” Oles said.
Oles quoted Mother Teresa and said what takes years to build, someone will try to destroy overnight – but to build anyway. She referred The Vindicator’s Feb. 21 story, which discussed how senior levy is spent and the rent that the center pays to the township.
Oles assured the audience that the center would have support of Austintown’s seniors no matter what.
“I read the article with disgust and disbelief. ... I may now live 1,300 miles away, but I still remain loyal and protective to the community and people that I love,” Oles said. “Mess with the seniors and the veterans in this community and you will surely feel our wrath.”
Oles encouraged residents to continue to support the levy and the senior center.
“It [the center] is brightest spot Austintown has ever known,” she said.