Templeton senior center highlights programs, transportation and new kitchen under construction

Templeton Senior Community Center staff and volunteers onstage described the center's programs and services, ongoing kitchen construction and transportation resources, and urged residents to participate and RSVP for events.

The center's senior center manager, Ryan Brown, said he oversees daily operations and has added the newsletter to his duties since starting in September. "I oversee daily operations of the center. I create the newsletter now. That's a new job for me," Brown said. He described weekly and monthly activities including card bingo, pitch, cribbage, beginner Mahjong, sign-language classes, monthly craft classes, a Thursday "creative stitchers" knitting and quilting group and twice-weekly yoga.

The center is marking a decade in its current building and is completing a kitchen. "An all new state of the art industrial kitchen is currently being worked on just down the hall," Brown said. He said the center moved into the building in July 2015 and that the Templeton Council on Aging was created by a town vote at the annual Town Meeting on May 10, 1976.

Staff outlined services that operate from the center year-round. Elaine LeBlanc, the administrative assistant and transportation dispatcher, said she books rides Monday through Thursday and that the center runs three drivers and three vehicles. "We do that Monday through Thursday. We go right to your house," LeBlanc said. She described one vehicle as a MART van that holds eight passengers and two wheelchairs and said the center recently received a grant-funded van owned by the town that can carry six passengers or two wheelchairs ("not at the same time," she noted).

Center staff also provide benefits assistance. A staff member identified Linda as the center's SNAP outreach coordinator, and Gail Noel, a SHINE counselor, said SHINE stands for "Serving the health insurance needs of everyone on Medicare." Noel said she attends the center every Thursday to help with Medicare and MassHealth questions and that other staff help with SNAP applications, fuel assistance (November through April) and housing searches.

Staff emphasized social programming and volunteer roles. Brown said the center holds occasional themed events such as a senior prom and that local businesses donate items for weekly coffee drop-ins. He noted meals often fill quickly and that participants must RSVP because space is limited. Several speakers described the center as a social and support hub where members check in on one another.

There were no formal votes or motions reported during the presentation. Staff described past fundraising by the group Friends of the Templeton Elders, which ran a Mac and Cheese Festival for five years to raise money to help complete the kitchen; Brown said those efforts contributed to the building's completion and that the kitchen work is now finishing.

The presentation also noted that the center maintains durable medical equipment for loan, including wheelchairs and walkers, available to town residents without a specified time limit. Staff encouraged residents to visit the center to sign up for services and programs and to RSVP for events to ensure space and meals.

Meeting remarks combined program descriptions, historical context and operational details; no formal board actions or policy decisions resulted from the presentation.