Starting to reach retirement age, Baby Boomers are having as much impact as ever.
“They’re redefining what it means to get older,” said Margaret Bartos, director of the Independence Township Adult Activity Center, also known as the Senior Center.
“They’re more self sufficient, greater sense of entitlement, more knowledgeable, they want more choices, and they question everything, as they always have.”
For the center, that means programs with more physical and mental activity, as well as community service opportunities, said Mary Melega, senior center programmer.
“We’re not just Bingo and embroidery,” Melega said. “The challenge is to provide active, interesting programs that keep the brain active.”
The center also coordinates with local schools’ service learning projects to bring students and seniors together for multi-generational projects, said Karen Koenigbauer, senior services coordinator.
Seniors knit caps for newborns, tutor children, make quilts, and work with students on landscaping and flower beds around the center.
“The projects support the whole community,” Koenigbauer said. “The youth in the community interact and build relationships with the senior population ? it’s exciting.”
Volunteerism is a priority at the center, with retirees coming to the center to help people with taxes, health care, and even reemployment in a new field, she said.
“They have a chance to do something they’ve never done before,” Bartos said. “It’s a reflection of their experiences, growing up in the 1960s, with President Kennedy’s call for volunteerism. They have a desire to serve.”