Girard Multi-Generational Center plans open house Oct. 18

Staff report

GIRARD

Girard Multi-Generational Center, 443 Trumbull Ave., will host an open house from 4 to 7 p.m. Oct. 18 to celebrate its 15th anniversary. A special program will take place at 5:30 p.m.

The event in the center’s gym will feature hors d’oeuvres and desserts. Donny Richards will provide music from 6 to 7 p.m.

Reservations are requested; call the center at 330-545-6596 by Wednesday.

The idea for the center was born from the refusal of the Parkwood neighborhood to support the building of a new centralized intermediate school if the current intermediate school would be boarded up. Charlie Lamancusa and retired labor leader Jack O’Connell suggested that the school system give the old school building to the community to develop an inter-generational community center.

In 1999, the new intermediate school was built and Girard City School District signed a lease with Girard Community Committee Inc. (DBA Girard Multi-Generational Center), giving the old school to the committee for $1 a year for 20 years.

In 2000, the center received $50,000 in Ohio Department of Aging Senior Facilities Program dollars to start renovations on the building. In 2001, the center began operating with a $921,000 pilot project grant from the U.S. Department of Education to provide educational, fitness, socialization, and social services.

Today, the center is funded partially through Trumbull County Senior Levy and Area Agency on Aging 11 Inc. Its primary funding source is a city of Girard senior levy, which passed in 2007 and was renewed in 2011. The center provides services to an average of 1,000 unduplicated clients a year; many come to the center five days a week.

Programs and services provided include a daily coffee bar, mind games, senior dinners, two workout rooms, a computer caf , a community garden, seminars on senior issues, craft classes, knitting and crochet classes, AARP tax assistance, 4th Ward Block Watch, veterans programs, monthly themed breakfasts and luncheons and tutoring for computers, tablets and smartphones.

Stretching, Tai-Chi, yoga/pilates and Zumba classes also are available. A Matter of Balance classes and a Diabetes Empowerment Education Program also are available.

A licensed social worker helps seniors and their families with planning for, and coping with, life changes, including preparing living wills and giving caregiver assistance support and referrals. Among other tasks, she assists with Medicare and Social Security benefit enrollments and reviews and registers people annually for Medicare or OPERS health/prescription plans.