POWAY: New Senior Center director hopes to attract younger people to facility

This article has been modified since its original posting

By GARY WARTH - Staff Writer | Wednesday, July 23, 2008 2:30 PM PDT ∞

POWAY --- "Senior," in almost every context, means something good. It's the grade high schoolers look forward to, what business partners hope to become and the top rank of any order.

When it's used to describe age, however, it's usually not something warmly embraced. And that is one of the first challenges faced by Siobhan Hancock, newly appointed executive director of the Poway Senior Center.

"Senior centers all over the country are in decline because people don't want to see themselves as seniors," Hancock said. "Everybody is avoiding it, especially boomers."

Baby boomer is a popular term for people born between the end of World War II and the late 1950s or early 1960s. Generally more active and health-conscious than previous generations, boomers are not eager to consider themselves as seniors, even though people at the younger end of the generation may be considered just that. Membership eligibility at the Poway Senior Center starts at age 50.

Hancock sees a difference between accepting what comes with age and surrendering to the stereotypes of being elderly.

"I came to this with a vision of how we view aging." she said about her new job.

Hancock joined the center to replace former Executive Director Blaine McCafferty, who left in December after two and a half years in the position.

McCafferty, who now works as a senior litigation paralegal with a San Diego law firm, was credited with helping right the then-financially struggling center, which had been running at monthly deficits of $12,000 to $15,000.

Besides helping balance the center's budget, McCafferty oversaw a remodeling of the dining room, revamped a program to provide meals to seniors and added a "healthy senior" program.

Hancock said she hopes to expand the programs even more, with the goal of attracting younger members. While it still has the expected bingo nights and Mah Jong games for its members, some of the center's most popular offerings are fitness and yoga classes, which attract about 40 people twice a week. Hancock said she would like to double the number of participants and increase exercise classes to every day.

"I'm talking to someone about starting a meditation class.," she added. "My goal is to make people as healthy as they can be, in mind, body and spirit."

Membership is $25 a year and includes activities such as poker, sewing, pool, ceramics, quilting, doll-making, watercolor and bridge. Despite all the activities offered at the center, however, Hancock said people still sometimes think she is calling from a nursing home when she identifies her facility.

The senior stigma is so serious, she said, that such groups as the American Society of Aging and the Gerontological Society of America for years have been trying for years to find a new word for the age.

Until then, Hancock said senior centers have to find a way to make aging boomers feel welcome. She hopes to invite guest speakers to talk about travel and other relevant topics and create a more provocative food menu that might include sushi and fusion dishes.

"Boomers don't want to eat meat loaf and mashed potatoes," she said.

The center also is ready to debut its Web site, www.PowaySeniorCenter.org, and has hosted Wii video games in its "intergenerational lounge" shared by youths and seniors.

Hancock earned a master's degree in gerontology, the study of the psychological and social aspects of aging, in 2006. Before that, her diverse resume included work in clothing and design, business management and yoga.

Work at the senior center represents a full circle, however, as Hancock's first job came when she was 12 and wrote letters for an elderly woman when she was growing up in Tucson, Arizona.

Contact staff writer Gary Warth at (760) 740-5410 or gwarth@nctimes.com.

CORRECTION: Poway Senior Center director misquoted

A typographical error about Poway Senior Center Executive Director Siobhan Hancock resulted in a misquote.

Her actual quote was: "I'm talking to someone about starting a meditation class."

We apologize for the error.