ASHLAND — The Ashland Senior Center will celebrate its half-century of existence in the community on Aug. 29 with an open house.
All are invited to the facility on 10th Street from 2 to 4 p.m. The Ashland Area Chamber of Commerce will kick things off with a ribbon cutting at 2 p.m. The address is 615 West 10th St.
Becky Echelberger, the senior center’s president, said she’s excited to celebrate in person this year. The 50th anniversary celebration was technically in 2020, but it was canceled because of the pandemic.
“Ashland County is one of the very few counties in the State of Ohio that offers both a private and a government-funded entity (for seniors),” Echelberger said.
She said the center does not get any public funding and rely on fees from its 235 members, sales from the in-house thrift shop dubbed “Bargains in the Belfry.”
The thrift shop has been described by many at the center as the area’s “best kept secret.” The shop carries clothing items and everything in between.
The building that houses the Senior Center was purchased Dec. 28, 1970, two years after operating out of a place on Main Street in Ashland.
“Due to the growing membership, these facilities soon became inadequate, and at the end of two years the local committee felt could no longer meet the standards of government agencies, and federal funds were rejected,” reads the center’s history pamphlet.
The growing membership also meant a redefining of the center’s mission, wrote the writer of the history pamphlet, Martha Horne. So the new goal for the center was to provide community services and social, recreational, educational and cultural activities for senior citizens of Ashland County.
Over the years, that mission has evolved to include changing the image of seniors from “worn out” to “overqualified.”
The members do this through a number of activities, such as caning (weaving cane) and producing a monthly newsletter, “The Golden Age Lantern.” The group also sometimes travels together to casinos and used to take regular multi-day trips to other sites in Florida, New England, the Ozarks, Williamsburg, etc.
Caning is what attracted Echelberger and her husband to the center in 1999.
“We had friends in the caning group at the senior center. And we used to do crafts, so they thought we’d be good at it because we’re good with our hands,” Echelberger said.
The center still offers a chair caning program from 9 a.m. to noon on Wednesdays. Echelberger said four men, including her husband, and a woman attend the program.
It wasn’t long after Echelberger and her husband starting coming to classes at the center that they became more involved in the daily operations there.
“The center was in bad shape — it didn’t have the money for proper maintenance. I should have known better when they appointed my husband and I to the board … they wanted me to run for president,” Echelberger said.
She didn’t want the gig, she said. But one evening at a board meeting, the board members nominated her for president.
“And then they closed nominations and that was the end of it,” she said, laughing.
With a 31-year career as an administrative professional for the engineering and planning department at Ohio Department of Transportation, it has been a good fit.
Her husband, Darrell, now runs the weekly chair caning classes.
Echelberger, 73, has enjoyed the role, she said. When she took over, the center operated in the red.
“In six months, we finished $2 in the black,” she said. “We’ve done a lot.”
The center is supported generously by the Ashland County Community Foundation, Trinity Lutheran Church and several other churches and organizations in the area, she said.
“I do enjoy it, but it has been very challenging,” Echelberger said.
She said the center faces challenges in maintaining the building and finding volunteers.
“All of the areas of the center are staffed with our volunteers, and we aren’t getting any younger,” she said.
Some of the volunteers can’t keep up with some of the tasks, forcing the center to hire people to get the work done. Despite the challenges, Echelberger is grateful.
“I’ve met a lot of nice people. I’m so thankful for the community and what they do for us,” she said.
A question: my daughter, age 55, has frequently attended the scrapbooking gatherings at your Ashland Facility. Is this senior facility open only to residents of Ashland and is there an age limit? She resides in Jefferson City.
Thank you for the information.