USA: Over 8,000 use $7 Million Wellness Center for Seniors

JOHN LOK / THE SEATTLE TIMES The 20,000-square-foot Northshore Health & Wellness Center features an exercise room, nurses and therapists. Next year it will also have a skybridge across East Riverside Drive. SEATTLE, WASHINGTON (The Seattle Times), September 14, 2005: What will $7 million buy these days? In Bothell, it's buying something believed to be unduplicated anywhere in the state in terms of providing services for an aging population. It's called the Northshore Health & Wellness Center, operated by the Northshore Senior Center. The senior center, which opened in 1992 on the south side of East Riverside Drive, has led to what has come to be called retirement row along that road south of downtown Bothell. Increasing numbers of retirement complexes have opened there, largely because of the nationally acclaimed senior center, said Marty Dennis, the center director. The senior center is believed to be the largest in the nation in terms of people served, she said, with more than 8,000 people using it many times a year and about 2,000 volunteers helping out. But part of the concept included the wellness center being built on the north side of the street, and that's what opened last week after six years of planning and fund raising. Much of the credit for the new center goes to Marianne LoGerfo, who retired in December after 22 years as the senior-center director, Dennis said. The new building is on the site of an old mill along the southern bank of the Sammamish Slough and adjoins the Burke-Gilman Trail. The 20,000-square-foot, three-level structure offers a number of attractions for seniors. Dennis said some places have been remodeled into similar centers elsewhere in the state, but none of them approaches the built-from-scratch result in Bothell. Part of it is just the way it looks. It has carpeted hallways, floral-wallpapered walls and what appears to be expensive hardwood floors. The floors, though, actually are vinyl, and Dennis said the center was built with low costs and high quality in mind. "You won't see anything else like this around here," she said. Financing included $4.9 million in public money raised through a tax district and about $2 million in private and charitable contributions. The project isn't quite complete. Bids are expected to be opened today for a sky bridge across East Riverside Drive that will connect the two centers by next year and allow pedestrians to avoid automobile traffic. The two centers will handle a variety of services, from coordinating the transportation provided by 16 vans to providing adult day care and nursing care. There's a kitchen for teaching life skills and a commercial kitchen that can handle weddings and other large events. A fenced courtyard offers a safe place for mentally impaired people who might tend to wander, preventing them from leaving the grounds, and there's a library for caregivers. Private funding has provided some of the most striking amenities, including a $125,000 Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation grant to improve training in computer technology. That means things like computers with giant keyboards to offset vision difficulties and voice-recognition software for computer users who can't see at all. A $300,000 Geneva Foundation grant paid for more than 20 pieces of exercise equipment. The new building also operates as the Northshore Adult Day Health Center, said Judi Pirone, the manager for the adult-day-health program. On one recent afternoon, about 40 people, many of them using wheelchairs and walkers, were taking part in an indoor bowling game, using lightweight pins and a hollow ball. Among the participants was Marianne Jones, who was born Dec. 27, 1902, in South Carolina and later moved with her husband to Washington. "I'll be 103 if I live that long," she joked. "I've got good genes in my family; they all lived a long time." As for the new center, Jones had a simple summation of how it has turned out. "I love it," she said. "I think the center is gorgeous." By Peyton Whitely Copyright © 2005 The Seattle Times Company