CCB MEDIA PHOTO
Christina Carey and Del Patton of the Friends of the Yarmouth Council on Aging.
YARMOUTH – When the Yarmouth Senior Center was built in 1987, it was the Friends of the Yarmouth Council on Aging that played a big role in fundraising for the project.
These days the Friends group still plays a role in fundraising for various needs at the center from a patio to bocce courts.
The Friends are an all-volunteer group, but there are also over 260 volunteers providing an estimated 8,000 hours of service to the senior center. The Executive Office of Elder Affairs estimates this in-kind service at $160,000.
Christina Carey, president of the Friends of the Yarmouth Council on Aging, said the senior center has a wide range of goings-on. “The senior center really is a great place. There are many people out there who feel, ‘Oh, it’s the senior center.’ Well, it’s not your father’s senior center any more. There are so many activities,” she said.
Among those activities, Carey said, are music program, bridge group, wood carving, knitting, crocheting, card games, bingo, dominoes, book clubs, exercise classes, bocce, shuffleboard, Zumba and many, many more.
In addition, two programs at the senior center contribute to the Friends.
Ballroom dances on Friday or Saturday nights contribute funds to the friends. For every dance event, the Friends get a percentage of the proceeds. The senior center’s bridge group is under the Friends group and money raised goes to the Friends. The travel group at the senior center also donates money to the Friends.
Two of the Friends’ biggest fundraisers are the New Year’s Day Polar Plunge and the Cinco de Mayo event.
The Yarmouth Senior Center is located at 528 Forest Road in South Yarmouth.
Listen below as Christina Carey and Del Patton discuss the Friends of the Yarmouth Council on Aging.
