Young at Heart board member speaks to Rotary

Ice cream before lunch?

“Why not?” said Paul Osserman, current board member of the Young at Heart group at the Douglas County Senior Center. The Minden Rotary club was invited to hold their meeting at the Senior Center recently and were pampered with a delicious lunch of ice cream, soup, entree and dessert.

The club has been active in Douglas County for more than 30 years, previously located in a building near Lampe Park before the Senior Center was built. Their main purpose is to be a support to seniors and to serve as a fundraising arm for the Senior Center. Membership is $10 per year and open to all, regardless of age.

Paul shared that support activities include senior trips to places such as the ACES games and the Pioneer Theater as well as a huge variety of onsite activities including a car show, dances, craft faire, luau, bingo (every Monday, Wednesday and Friday after lunch and every third Saturday), daily lunches, barbeques and a resource for equipment such as wheelchairs and walkers. They are also a sponsor of the Minden Concerts in the Park. Many of these activities as well as a swap meet, and a gift shop filled with items from local artisans also serve as fundraisers for the Senior Center. Recent expenditures of this fundraising arm have provided 15 new round tables for the senior center, a machine to sign in for lunch and volunteer hours and larger TV screens for bingo including sound and technology. Pinion Hills Elementary did a coin fundraiser this past spring and donated the funds to the YAH group who in turn purchased box fans for seniors without air conditioning.

Rotarian Ken Miller shared that he recently visited a board meeting for a Senior Center out of the area and the Douglas County Senior Center was described as “the country club” Senior Center.

For more information about Young at Heart, visit their Facebook page. They also have a website which is currently being updated and can be found at youngatheartseniorcitizens.org.

The Rotary Club of Minden meets at noon most Thursdays at the COD Casino.