Bnsf Foundation Aids Senior Center

Thu., March 9, 2000

By Mike Prager mikeprager15@gmail.com (509) 459-5454

The Southside Senior Activity Center recently was awarded a $5,000 grant from the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Foundation for construction of a new senior center.

The grant will be used to build offices for the Project Joy entertainers program within the proposed new center.

Leaders of the senior center are in the middle of a fund-raising campaign to build a new $2 million center at the southeast corner of Thornton Murphy Park. Access would be off a driveway leading to 27th Avenue.

So far, more than $800,000 has been raised for the project. Architect Glen Cloninger won a design competition and has been hired to do the drawings for the new building.

The senior center’s board of directors has sought to create more than a place for seniors. The new center would also house evening recreation programs for adults, meetings of Scout groups, neighborhood council meetings and after-school tutoring programs.

Project Joy is a volunteer program of seniors who perform mainly for other seniors at retirement centers and nursing homes. Project Joy is currently housed in the existing senior center in rented space at the Lincoln Heights Shopping Center.

Several retirees from the Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Railway are members of the Southside Senior Activity Center.

The leaders of the fund-raising drive include John Lothspeich, Ray Tomlinson, Carol Zuppe and Bob and Helen Shanewise.

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