The big 5-0: Canonsburg Senior Center celebrates golden anniversary
Courtesy Brenda Wacker
The Canonsburg Senior Center drives through town in the 2002 Fourth of July parade.
Courtesy Brenda Wacker
Members of Canonsburg Senior Center are decked out in costumes celebrating their heritage during the 2001 Fourth of July parade. For years, the center entered a float into Canonsburg’s annual parade.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
The piano in Canonsburg’s senior center will come to life April 7 during the 50th anniversary celebration. A pianist is scheduled to set the black-tie mood with soft chamber music at the event.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Canonsburg senior center is one of the largest centers in southwestern Pennsylvania. Pre-pandemic, the dining area was filled with locals enjoyed lunch and conversation, and numbers are beginning to grow again.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
Brenda Wacker, the center’s coordinator, decorates the tables for every holiday.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
The great outdoors blooms near the side entrance to Canonsburg’s senior center downtown.
Katherine Mansfield/Observer-Reporter
The center’s coordinator, Brenda Wacker, said Bingo is the most popular event at Canonsburg senior center. Folks also enjoy dartball and cards, and there’s a workout center onsite.
Katherine Mansfield
The Canonsburg senior center sits proudly in downtown, along the Freedom Transit route for easy access. The center celebrates 50 years on April 7.
By Katherine Mansfield
Canonsburg Senior Center is celebrating its golden anniversary.
“We’re not just bingo anymore,” said Brenda Wacker, senior center coordinator. “We do cards, parties. The seniors here know one another pretty well because we are close-knit.”
The close-knit center sits in the middle of Canonsburg’s bustling downtown. Through the town’s ups and downs, the senior center has remained open for residents 60 and older seeking camaraderie, lunch and a good time.
“To watch it grow to where it is today – I got to watch where it started out, very small,” said Debbie DeStefano, who founded the center in 1972. “I graduated from West Virginia University in 1971, and I got this job with Aging Services in Washington County. (Commissioner) Mike Flynn said, ‘I want you to go out and organize senior centers.’ It started out slow. Then it started to catch on. It just got bigger and bigger.”
When the center opened five decades ago, DeStefano said, folks crammed into the borough building basement to enjoy coffee and conversation while knitting or crocheting. The group outgrew its basement space and moved to Central Avenue. Within five years, the center hummed with activity every day.
“People that came back then … were housewives. This was their chance to get out of the house and do something for themselves. We had a captivated audience,” DeStefano said. “They did crafts. We did some trips. It was all just getting together and socializing.”
Then-mayor Lou Bell granted the senior center an infinity lease at its current address – the center pays a small monthly rent and covers some utility costs. Additional funding is provided by the Southwestern Pennsylvania Area Agency on Aging and other government programs.
Work and family dynamics changed with the times. While older adults retired, their children worked, and retirees spent their days babysitting grandchildren. Even with fewer regulars, the senior center thrived.
Folks turned out to play dartball and cards and, later, compete with one another at Nintendo Wii bowling.
Through the decades, the senior center has appeared on glamorous floats in the town’s annual Fourth of July parade, hosted dances and spa days, and even threw a mock wedding before the pandemic.
“It was a husband and wife who had been married like 64 years, but the wife pretended to be the husband, and the husband was the wife,” Wacker laughed. “He’s in a white gown with a veil. Their son was the shotgun at the wedding. It was really cute. That was a lot of fun.”
Wacker said this summer, she is partnering with the University of Pittsburgh to host a 12-week “On the Move” program. Qualifying center members spend two hours twice weekly completing the mobility and balance classes – and receive $90 for their time.
“That’s new and that, to me, is exciting,” said Wacker.
Canonsburg’s center is competitive in the annual Senior Games (which has been on hiatus throughout the pandemic), an older adults Olympics held during mid-summer. Centers from southwestern PA gather to show their stuff, competing in everything from pole and golf to shuffleboard and the one-mile relay run.
While bingo is the biggest draw at the center, Wacker said it’s not all food and games.
Every year, she invites the senior community to celebrate Black History Month. This year, Dr. Andrew Goudy, president of the NAACP Washington branch, gave the keynote speech.
“It was just very special,” Wacker said.
Also important is the education Wacker and community partners bestow upon senior center members.
“I have educational lectures,” she said, noting partners from various health and wellness organizations often stop in to provide educational resources to senior center members. “I’m a liaison with government agencies. If there’s a veteran that needs help, I can hook them up with the Director of Veterans Affairs.”
Pre-pandemic, the center welcomed dozens of older adults to its spacious dining area daily for lunch and socialization. Friends chatted, crafted and played pole or dartball.
Reopening has been slow, Wacker said, but she’s hopeful that seniors will return to the center as winter thaws into spring. On a recent Thursday, 25 locals sat around the circular tables for a hearty meal – more folks than usual.
The biggest challenge, Wacker believes, is catering to two separate audiences: the aging generation of baby boomers and the original center population.
“A lot of the standard regular consumers – we call them – are now in their 80s and 90s. And you have to cater and provide a hot meal and socialization for them, but then reach out to baby boomers who are still working or babysitting grandkids.”
Wacker hopes the upcoming 50th-anniversary gala will spark interest in the center. She’s going all out for the celebration. Think balloon arch, white tableclothed tables decorated in black runners and flowers set atop mirror centerpieces, butler service and a cake by Bethel Bakery.
A pianist will set the mood with chamber music as the Area Agency on Aging’s executive director, Leslie Grenfell, emcees the event. DeStefano, Senator Camera Bartolotta and Mayor Dave Rhome, along with other county commissioners and borough council members, will also be in attendance.
“(The senior center) is just, I feel, a very integral part of the community that needs to continue. We’re all getting older. If you’re sitting at home in front of the box, watching endless television, not educating yourself, not interacting with other people … If they don’t have a senior center, where are they going to go? I see it as an ongoing need,” Wacker said. “It’s just commemorating 50 years serving the community. I want to serve another 50 years. When I’m long gone, this center should still be serving the community.”