Press Release
Price–Without the Carbon County Senior Center many of our local senior citizens would go days, weeks or even months without interacting with another person.
In Carbon County like most communities, the responsibility of providing a senior center has fallen on the local governments. All programs are sponsored by Carbon County Governments and are funded by the county itself, while receiving additional monies from federal and state government, Price City, East Carbon, and donations from participants. There are two local senior centers; one in Carbon County on Fairgrounds Road, and one in East Carbon on Denver Avenue. There is also a “Meals on Wheels” service that delivers Monday through Friday to homebound individuals in Price, Wellington, Helper and East Carbon.
Between the two centers approximately 35,500 meals on wheels were delivered and nearly 28,000 meals were served at the centers in 2016 alone. Meals are available to all seniors 60-years or older, regardless of their ability to pay. Donations are appreciated from those individuals that are able. Many activities and services for seniors are also provided from exercise classes to ukulele lessons, or health clinics to a computer lab. Transportation is also available to local seniors Monday through Friday to the center and also additional trips to other destinations such as doctor appointments or grocery shopping.
There are 17 employees between both centers, and thousands of volunteer hours are donated each year to help with everything from making crafts for the gift shop, to serving meals to disabled seniors. A monthly Senior Center newsletter is posted on the Carbon County website with information about activities, the lunch menu and a letter from Director Debby Kobe. In that letter you get to know Kobe and the dedication she has to our centers.
“The biggest benefit, I believe, is providing a place for seniors to meet and feel connected. For many of the seniors, who come to the center, this it is their home away from home,” said Kobe when asked about the biggest benefits of having centers in our community. “Although we provide a meal, and that is important, the social connection is sometimes even more needed. Isolation is not a friend to the senior population.”
Some of the regular visitors of the Senior Centers were asked why the center is so important to them. “It is some place to go so I don’t have to sit home alone,” said one local resident. “The senior center is the reason I get up and get moving in the morning.”
The benefits go beyond communication, as some rely on the meals and nutrition provided by the center. “Seniors that rely on mobile meals would have poor nutrition and no one to check in on them,” said another member. “For many of us we get our main meal of the day here.”
Every year a new group of citizens are able to utilize the senior center and Carbon County has worked very hard to insure that they will have someplace to go for many years to come. For more information about the Carbon County Senior Centers, contact Director Debby Kobe at 435-636-3202.