Senior Center fall filled with fundraisers
TONY BROWN/DAILY FORUM
Nodaway County Senior Center Administrator Aimee Firavich, seated, and Culinary Manager Jody Brown are busy planning a full fall lineup of 2016 fundraisers, proceeds from which will mostly benefit the center’s home-delivered meals program. In addition to the traditional Fall Breakfast, set again this year for opening day of the firearms deer season, the Senior Center will introduce the first-ever Boo Bash, a Halloween parking lot party scheduled from 4-8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 29.
It’s shaping up as a busy fall for the Nodaway County Senior Center, which throughout the year provides a weekday lunch program, social activities, and various lifestyle assistance initiatives for area residents over age 60.
Last week, a group of local Girl Scouts and Host Lions Club members completed an exterior landscaping project at the center funded through a United Way grant that also paid for new drywall at the facility. Later this month, Maryville residents will get a chance to check out the improvements during the first-ever Boo Bash, a Halloween fundraiser in support of meals-on-wheels.
Organized by Senior Center Culinary Manager Jody Brown, the parking lot Boo Bash carnival will take place from 4-8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 29.
A host of activities is planned for young and old alike, including a hot dog roast, bounce house, face and pumpkin painting, and live music by singer Ashley Merrigan, winner of the People’s Choice award at this year’s Country Showdown talent contest at the Nodaway County Fair.
Brown said she is hoping for a big crowd at the event, which will raise money for the center’s home-delivered meals program.
Known informally as meals-on-wheels, the initiative involves both center staff and volunteer drivers who bring hot meals to the front doors of about 90 households in all parts of the county every Monday through Friday.
Volunteers also deliver frozen meals to the elderly and those with disabilities for consumption over the weekend.
Another 100 or so seniors dine weekdays at the center itself, which offers reduced-price cafeteria meals between 11:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.
Admission to the Boo Bash is free. Free-will donations will be accepted.
The following weekend, the Senior Center will play host to a craft show hosted by Bittersweet Floral & Gifts, which is donating all proceeds from vendor booth and table rentals in support of center operations and programs.
The show will run from 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 5, and include a bake sale that will also raise center funds. Administrator Aimee Firavich said local cooks wishing to donate baked goods to the sale should make arrangements by calling 660-562-3999.
Vendors wishing to reserve booth space should call Bittersweet Floral at 660-582-5700. Cost per vendor location is $25.
Finally, on Saturday, Nov. 12 — from 4:30 a.m. until 10:30 a.m. — the center will host its annual Fall Breakfast, held again this year on opening morning of the firearms deer season.
While the breakfast caters to hunters, Firavich said everyone is welcome for the free-will donation meal, which will offer an all-you-can-eat menu featuring ham and sausage links, scrambled eggs, hash browns, biscuits and gravy, French toast sticks, and fresh fruit.
And coffee — lots of coffee.
As with the Boo Bash, all proceeds will benefit meals-on-wheels.
The heavy fall lineup of activities is indicative of the center’s need to raise funds going into a new calendar year.
Firavich said that of the Senior Center’s annual $300,000 in annual spending, only about $140,000 is provided by the state through the Northwest Missouri Area Agency on Aging, a sum that is used almost exclusively to purchase food.
Most of the rest of the budget, she said, comes from the United Way, a 5-cent per $100 of assessed valuation senior services property tax, and annual donations from civic groups such as the Host Lions and Maryville Rotary Club.
In addition to those funding sources, the center must rely each year on about $30,000 in private donations, largely from fundraisers like those described above.
