But first, the Ecumenical Senior Center provides a wide range of programs and services for seniors to spend quality time together while also giving back to the community.

Well, I'm here with Tim Barnes, who's the executive director of the Kalamazoo Ecumenical Senior Center.

Thank you so much for talking with me here today.

- Glad to be here.

- So, Tim, let's start with this because what would you say, you deal with seniors all day long, what is the biggest misconception that people have about seniors?

- We are a active, vibrant community, and we have a lot of people that wanna come and present in front of the seniors.

We're a great audience, and I always come back with, let's do almost, like, a town meeting, because you'd be surprised at what our seniors have ideas, they have opinions, they're not afraid to share their opinions, and let's give them an opportunity to be heard.

So, yeah, I am just pleased to be working in a job where I get to interact with seniors every day.

I'm very, very lucky.

- And really the goal right, of the Ecumenical Senior Society is really to enrich the lives of seniors, right?

You wanna do it body, mind, and spirit.

- Absolutely.

You know, we are a day center, so we're open Monday through Friday.

We are here just to engage our seniors and, you know, we provide a meal and, you know, a safe place to just come.

Sometimes we just hang out.

Sometimes we're doing activities, and seniors really see this as their home away from home, and it's really developed a family atmosphere.

- You do some exercise classes with the seniors, and I think I remember seeing that there's maybe a little dancing to some Marvin Gaye and Aretha Franklin afterward.

- Yeah, you know, it's amazing what music does, and it's amazing that we have some seniors that have memory loss, but they know every single word to the oldies and to the songs, and they love to dance.

And so we try to do that whenever we can.

I'm really excited about a new program that we've been partnering with the Kalamazoo Athletic Club, and I was told that the CDC recommends that seniors get, at least, I think it's 2 1/2 hours of exercise a week.

And most seniors don't get that.

But when you look at African American seniors, it drops to only 4%.

And I'm like, wow, we need to do something.

And 95% of our clientele are African American seniors, and most are dealing with emotional and physical challenges.

And so it's a program that we're really excited.

- [Kim] You know, Tim, I wanted to ask you about the building that you're in, because it's the Van Avery Drugstore, right?

And there's a rich history associated with that drugstore that goes all the way back to the civil rights movement.

- Right, yeah, we kind of feel like it's sacred ground here, and we hope to, with our new capital campaign to really highlight the rich history that started here.

And it used to be a neighborhood drugstore, and bottom line is that a teenager wanted to get a job, get an application, was denied an application, and is that the community came out, they picketed, they boycotted, and they, you know, made it known that that was not all right.

And it pretty much, for people in Kalamazoo, they see that moment and that movement as a beginning of the civil rights movement here in Kalamazoo.

- So as we talked about body, mind, and spirit, that's what you're all about.

So when you talk about some of the classes that you offer, you know, there's music, there's sewing.

What else am I missing?

- Wednesday has been kind of set up as our craft days.

We have a large quilt that everybody's name, we put had everybody's name put on it.

And so the seniors are working on that, that we're hoping to be able to hang in the new facility as a memory of the people that are actively coming every day.

We have some woodworking projects going on.

They're making purses and shawls for the fall.

Sometimes we have people come in and they make cards and book, you know, scrapbooking, that type of thing.

But trying to keep them, jewelry making, trying to show their creativity and, you know, keeping them active.

One of the things that's unique about us is that membership is free, so we're open to anybody 60 years or older.

- [Kim] What makes the Ecumenical Senior Center so important to Kalamazoo?

- It's really about accepting people where they are and having a place that people can call home.

That when seniors are here, you know, we talk about it, we try to have a home setting and we take care of each other.

And it's very clear that that's what happens.

The whole concept of being called ecumenical, which refers to a lot of things, but mostly probably in the church community of all faith and all backgrounds, being able to have a place where everybody's welcomed.

So our overall mission is to provide activities, to provide resources.

We distribute food and transportation and, you know, access to information.

- Is it like a family for a lot of these seniors?

- There's no question.

We had, you know, it is interesting, I had a senior that ended up leaving to visit for an extended period in Arizona.

And I remember he kept saying, "I wanna go home to be with my friends."

And I'm like, well, that's us.

I mean, it's, like, it kind of hit me.

Like, I guess I sometimes forget that for seniors, you know, we see them every day, and having that fellowship and that checking in with people, how important that is for their mental health and for their, you know, for them to thrive.

- And you also give back to the community.

We can't oversight that, because the knitting group is one group that does that with scarves and mittens.

- I was trying to run a program where I wanted to highlight, you know, simple acts of kindness.

And, you know, so often in the community people will do things, like, they'll pay for someone's groceries or they'll pay for someone's dinner at the table next to them.

And it's, like, you know what?

People have been so good to the center, and when we need support with in kind, I mean, I just need to send out an announcement saying, you know, we need 50 turkeys and they show up at the door type of thing.

And the community has been really, really good about that.

But we started a program, a pay it forward program where the intent was for seniors to raise, so we'll raise a little bit of money, but then let them decide how they would give back.

But it's a neat way for us to have our seniors making decisions on how they wanna give back to the community that's been so positive to them.

- And I'm sure that, you know, in their younger days, they probably maybe worked outside and had gardens.

And when the weather warms up, do they have any time to be able to head outside?

Do you do any outdoor activities?

- My first two years I was here, we have a parking lot that is just blasted hot, and there was no protection, no shade.

And so we created four large garden planters.

And then I have a garden tarp or a sail, so we have a shaded area.

And so it's really been fun.

For the last two, three years we've been working on growing flowers and the seniors are adamant about, you know, they get the hose out.

On a daily basis, they're pulling weeds and watering the gardens.

And they really take a lot of pride in that.

And they love just hanging out.

I mean, there are times where I'm ready to leave at 5:00, 5:30, and I go outside and there's still people hanging out under the tarp and it's like, okay, the bar's closing out here.

I'm gonna lock the gate here.

But just being able to have a place where they can hang out in the breeze and just share and talk with people.

So it's been really, really positive.

- Yeah, it's just so wonderful to be able to talk to seniors.

Even when I was a young girl, I was always drawn to seniors because they're just full of life experience, right?

I mean, their knowledge.

They've seen so many things in their life.

So Tim, I wanted to thank you so much for talking with me a little bit here today about this wonderful program that you're doing.

The Ecumenical Senior Center of Kalamazoo.

Thank you so much.

- It's great to be with you.

Thank you so much.

(bright energetic music) - [Narrator] Support for Kalamazoo Lively Arts is provided by the Irving S. Gilmore Foundation, helping to build and enrich the cultural life of greater Kalamazoo.