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ST. CLAIR SHORES — The St. Clair Shores Senior Activity Center gained 450 members since this time last year, according to Senior Center Coordinator Matthew Hubinsky.
After reviewing recent statistics, Hubinsky discovered that the number of members they currently have is around 1,700 people. He said this increase can be attributed to spreading the word by word-of-mouth, through newspaper ads and across social media.
The center is also “just a great place to be,” Hubinsky said.
St. Clair Shores Parks and Recreation Director Henry Bowman, who is also a member of the senior center, said he’s definitely seen the increase.
“For the fitness center, it’s busier and busier,” Bowman said. “The age to get in there is 50, so we’re going to start seeing younger seniors going in there.”
The Senior Activity Center offers different activities to fit most people’s needs and wants. For example, some members could be looking to exercise at the fitness center, while others are looking to join a group to knit with. Some of the members just want to get in some much-needed social time.
Hubinsky said some of the seniors can find things to do throughout the whole day.
“And some people, they’ll come in in the morning, they’ll do yoga, they’ll go to the fitness center, then they’ll stick around for maybe another class that we have or just to socialize,” Hubinsky said. “They may stay for lunch so they can make a whole day out of being here, which is cool, too.”
The center utilizes a SMART bus program as well, Hubinsky said. The buses can drive St. Clair Shores residents to the center, to appointments or to different trips around the area.
“So the SMART bus helps those who can’t drive out to here,” Hubinksy said. “And then we also see people from other cities, too. They utilize their SMART bus program to bring them here, too, so it’s really cool.”
Bowman said people utilize the center year-round.
“Busiest time for us over here is without a doubt right after the first of the year and (it) gets busy.” Bowman said. “Everybody always wants to get healthy in the new year.”
Both Hubinsky and Bowman said the renovations, whether they were seven years ago or from recent ARPA projects, helped increase membership at the center.
“I would say so, I started here, it will be three years in May, and the renovations happened back in, I think, it was seven years ago now,” Hubinsky said. “But from my understanding and from looking back at trends, the memberships did increase over time, so I think that did help.”
There are a number of ways to keep seniors coming to the center. Bowman said that includes keeping the machines at the fitness center clean and updated, adding more classes, and keeping the out-of-center trips going.
Both Hubinksy and Bowman sang praises for their lunch program and “Chef Marty.”
They say the lunch program is fantastic and that she is one of the reasons people keep coming in to eat lunch. Lunch sign-ups are put out the week before and have a total of 40 spots for each service, Hubinksy said.
“We ask for (a) $5 donation, but it’s not necessary for 60 and older,” Hubinksy said. “If you’re under 60, then we ask for a $6 donation. If somebody doesn’t pay it or can’t afford it, we’re here to give back, so that’s the whole point of the program is to help out our neighbors here.”
Bowman said keeping seniors active with instructional classes is what the Senior Activity Center will keep doing.
“We want to keep our seniors active so we’re going to do a class for people on how to do disc golf and all our activities that we have set up. We want to make sure that people know what they’re doing,” Bowman said. “I think we’re even going to look (to) start doing like a shuffleboard class, and so we can get that going.”
The St. Clair Shores Senior Activity Center is located at 20000 Stephens Street next to the Civic Ice Arena.
