INC NEWS - Fw: We're getting some good press!

Fri Aug 24 11:24:37 EDT 2007

Great news from the Center for Senior Life!

mike shiflett

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Amanda Fuquay 
To: Angie Elkins ; Barbara Lofton ; Becky Heron ; Betty Borden ; Burton Rauch ; Diane Wright ; Diane Wright ; Diane Wright ; Earl Kirby ; Gail Souare ; Howard Clement III ; Jack Preiss ; Jeff Stoddard ; Larry Holt ; Lucy Zastrow ; Mary McCallister ; Michael Shiflett ; Tracey Blickensderfer ; Anna Watkins ; Champe Revis ; Debbie Webb-Ogundele ; Dwight Bunce ; Elan Easter ; Juanita Allen ; Lynne Chamblee ; Reginald Smith ; Sam Andrews 
Sent: Friday, August 24, 2007 10:42 AM
Subject: We're getting some good press!

We're getting some good press!

Senior Center getting garden 

BY WILLIAM F. WEST : The Herald-Sun

bwest at heraldsun.com

Aug 24, 2007 : 12:19 am ET 

DURHAM -- A Triangle area leadership development organization is stepping in to help improve the outdoors immediately adjacent to the Durham Center for Senior Life. 

The Legacy Center on Wednesday started grading for a garden and patio area, with the work set to be complete by the weekend and formal dedication ceremonies Sept. 10, said Bill Spritzer, one of Legacy's project leaders. 

"It's pretty awesome," said Spritzer, a consultant from Cary. 

"I am absolutely ecstatic," said Gail Souare, executive director of the Coordinating Council for Senior Citizens. "This is a great thing." 

Souare, who grew up in Vermont, holds a master's degree in public health from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, a nationally ranked research center. She worked for a health care foundation in California before being named in March to lead the senior center, which had opened in May 2006. 

The center, earlier under the direction of Nancy Love, was a subject of much bad publicity, with critics concerned about what they saw as lackluster programs and a reported average daily attendance of only about 25 to 30. 

The 35,000-square-foot, $5.5 million structure was built at 406 Rigsbee Ave. on property given by the city, with Durham County providing construction financing and being generally responsible for social services. 

But, the critics pointedly targeted the center's incomplete kitchen and unfinished theater. 

Souare said that a month ago she hired a development director whose marching orders will include raising funds for those two areas. 

Souare, who pledged to expand services and bring more seniors into the center, said that attendance has soared to anywhere between 100 and 150 a day. 

"Yeah, I feel pretty comfortable with that," Souare said about the accuracy of those numbers. 

"We have really taken off now," Souare said. "It took a while for people to learn about us." 

Spritzer said that although the building is still new, the landscaping was incomplete. 

"There's a fenced area, a very nice gate fence, if you will, where it was meant to be a garden or a patio area for the seniors to kind of sit out there and relax and do what they want to do," Spritzer said. 

"What we're doing is creating that garden for them. We took the initial architectural plans and have modified them according to the executive director and her staff," Spritzer said. 

Spritzer also said pots will be in place where the seniors can grow flowers and vegetables of their liking. 

The Legacy Center, located near Raleigh-Durham International Airport, provides a full curriculum of adult educational workshops, seminars and management programs. 

Spritzer said participants in the garden and patio project include people from as far away as Miami, New Hampshire and New York. 

Spritzer said that, as part of a leadership phase of the Legacy program, team members have to create a heritage that will remain in place after they depart. 

And so, as a condition, only 20 percent of Legacy's own money and time can be used on such a project, with the remaining materials and time being donated. 

But, when asked the estimated cost, Spritzer said, "I would say this would be a sticker price of maybe $20,000 ... $30,000 at least." 

Spritzer said James Yeargan is contributing landscaping and two competing concrete companies, Chandler and Ready Mixed, are contributing their material as well. 

"I love looking out for the young and the elderly," said Daniel Brame, local operator for Chandler. "That's what you should do anyway." 

Amanda Lynn Fuquay

Administrative Assistant

Council for Senior Citizens

406 Rigsbee Ave., Suite 202

Durham, NC 27701

(919) 688-8247 ext 108

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