Station Break Senior Center keeps in touch with clients during COVID-19 pandemic

MOUNT VERNON – Before COVID-19, the Station Break Senior Center on Howard Street in Mount Vernon would be bustling with activity on a typical weekday, Fridays in particular.

“We would have chair exercises, chair volleyball,” Meredith Lowther, the center’s director, told the Mount Vernon News. “We would have crafts or a cooking class going on. Fridays there was always bingo. There was always something for them to do while they were here.”

Some seniors would be waiting at the door in the mornings when the center opened. But in March, the center was forced to close its doors, with seniors being the most vulnerable population to COVID-19 and the most likely to die from it.

Lowther could immediately see the benefits of the social interaction the center provided.

“There were seniors who moved from other counties and other states who didn’t know other seniors,” she said. “Within a matter of weeks of coming here, they would have a whole friends group that would go shopping (or) out to eat. They would form a bond and socialize and be able to do things outside of the center.”

The center does still offer meals for seniors. Lowther will sometimes ask about them about their friends and they will reply, “I haven’t seen them in a while.”

The center also delivers meals to seniors’ homes; but rather than taking them inside the homes, they leave them on the porch to avoid contact, speaking only through the door. No more sitting down at the kitchen table to chat.

“For the home-delivery clients, we may be the only people they see each week,” Lowther said. “And we have very little contact with them now.”

Some seniors were so afraid of COVID-19 that they canceled the meal deliveries altogether.

“I think they are feeling a little more comfortable now with the vaccines coming out,” Lowther said. “But there are still some who are very precautious and don’t even want to see us.”

Some seniors are looking forward to the vaccines, others are not so sure.

Lowther is not sure when the center will reopen. In the meantime, it has tried holding Zoom activities for clients and tries to stay in touch with them.

“I do have a staff member who calls almost 200 clients every two weeks just to check on them and make sure they are OK,” Lowther said.