Age is just a number
As Little House turns 60, the country's first suburban senior center is trying to cater to a more active senior population – and to attract people of all ages

by Sean Howell

(Reprinted from The Almanac, Sunday, May 24, 2009)

It would be easy to mistake the Little House Activity Center, tucked away behind Nealon Park off Middle Avenue in Menlo Park, as a retreat for senior citizens, a secluded haven.

It is, after all, hidden from the street, situated at the end of a long driveway that wraps around the park. And though Little House dropped the "Senior Center" tag from its name in 2003, it's had trouble shaking that label and convincing people that the center is open to people under 65, as well. Michelle Knapik, executive director of the nonprofit that runs the center, said she ran into two police officers a few weeks back, eating lunch practically on the center's doorstep. They frowned at her when she invited them inside, saying they thought only seniors were allowed.

Little House's doors have always been wide open, Ms. Knapik said. Inviting passersby inside has been a tradition there since it opened in May 1949, in a "little house" on Santa Cruz Avenue in Menlo Park. Volunteers would literally grab seniors off the streets, according to Ms. Knapik.

Back then, the concept of a senior center was pretty foreign to most – Little House claims to be the first in America's suburbs, and the first in the nation geared toward recreation.

Sixty years after it started working to meet needs of senior citizens, the nonprofit group that runs the center is now taking on a challenge that seems equally foreign, and equally daunting: removing the stigma associated with the words "senior citizen."

"To seniors, a 'senior' is always somebody else," Ms. Knapik said.

As it does every year, Little House is celebrating its own birthday with an anniversary tea on Tuesday, May 12. The event will begin at 2 p.m. in the courtyard.

A natural outgrowth

Over the years, Little House – and the services offered by Peninsula Volunteers, the nonprofit that runs it – have grown in direct response to community needs, Ms. Knapik said. The group's meals on wheels program – every weekday, volunteers deliver 240 lunches to homebound seniors – began when regular visitors to the center could no longer make it in for lunch, and volunteers started coming to them.

As with many Peninsula Volunteers programs, the meals on wheels program was a "natural outgrowth" of what the center had been doing, Ms. Knapik said.

The center quickly outgrew the little house on Santa Cruz Avenue, moving to its current site behind Nealon Park in 1954. The center has expanded over the years to accommodate a growing number of visitors. It currently claims about 1,100 members and 300 volunteers, with 100 to 150 people cycling through per day, Ms. Knapik estimates.

People participate in a range of programs and activities, including classes in woodworking and foreign languages, classic movie nights and ballroom dancing. Programs have changed over time; the center offers exercise classes designed to improve mobility, and classes oriented toward activating the brain through puzzles based around Google searches.

When members or would-be instructors approach Kersti Delgado, the center's director, with an idea for a new class, she usually takes them up on it, she says.

Under the "some things never change" category, Ms. Knapik says she recently came across an old photograph of people hula-hooping, a class that remains among the most popular the center offers.

And as the center works to bring in the surrounding community, it also strives to connect its members with the world outside. It has a reference desk for services offered by various groups on the Peninsula that members might not be aware are available to them, and a travel desk that books group trips, from excursions to movie theaters, to vacations in Washington, D.C.

Scrimping and saving

Little House has wide community support; about 80 percent of its revenues come from donations.

Still, it certainly hasn't been immune to the recession, Ms. Knapik said. Donations have been off by about 25 percent since last year.

The center has a healthy amount of money in reserve, she said, but fundraising is "critical" to its operation. It has slightly increased its (relatively modest) fees, and is looking into other ways to raise funds, including grant money, according to Ms. Knapik.

For all the programs the center offers, Ms. Delgado says that the most important one might also be the most basic: lunch. The center's main attraction has always been that it brings people together; often, people come through the doors for the first time after losing a spouse. The cafeteria and courtyard are where the magic happens, she says; where people meet new friends, and sometimes, new loves.

For more information, call 322-0126.

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Peninsula Volunteers, Inc.
800 Middle Avenue
Menlo Park, CA 94025
Telephone: 650-326-0665
Fax: 650-326-9547