To bring Santa Clarita Valley’s senior citizens a new facility for recreation, leisure and educational activities, the Santa Clarita Valley Committee on Aging launched the SCV Senior Center Campaign on Tuesday on the grounds of their new site.
Currently, $7.65 million has been raised for the $11.4 million project, including $3 million each from the city of Santa Clarita and the county of Los Angeles. The remaining $3.75 million will be accumulated through funding from donors to complete the project, which has been four years in the making.
The 30,400-square-foot center, which will be located on Golden Valley Road and Newhall Ranch Road, plans to include a fitness center, ballroom, dance studio, banquet hall, café, putting green, family lounge, computer lab, learning center, salon, and provide financial planning and medical care services.
Senior Center Executive Director Kevin MacDonald said up to this point, preparation for the new center has required a lot of planning and research.
“We’re not just building a center, we’re building a future,” MacDonald said.
To garner what seniors would like to see in the facility, current and future senior citizens have given input. Several multipurpose rooms will accommodate diverse needs for events and activities.
“We want to make it interchangeable so it can be anything in the future,” he said.
Campaign Co-Chair Todd Stevens said as the senior community has outgrown their current center, the new center will be more reflective of Santa Clarita’s care for senior citizens.
“If you look at the current senior center, it is not indicative of the community Santa Clarita is,” Stevens said.
Mayor Cameron Smyth said the city was glad to contribute funds to the center and look forward to honoring Santa Clarita’s multigenerational community with the new facility.
“It was certainly an easy decision to decide to donate $3 million,” Smyth said. “We are very proud. Certainly, the time is now to move forward with construction.”
Chris Avelino, M.D., Chairman of the Department of Medicine and Committee on Aging board member, said the social aspect of the senior center is deeply impactful to seniors’ lives.
“Patients tell me, ‘You may have saved my life, but the senior center has made life worth living,’” Avelino said.
For a pair of seniors, involvement in the center gave a man a purpose when he was facing one of the most difficult times in his life. Sharon Black, wife of Bill, stood beside her husband and shared that when her husband was going through chemotherapy, he found community at the center by volunteering in food services.
“There’s a purpose in the senior center,” Sharon Black said. “I don’t know what I’d do without it.”
She followed by saying the bigger the center is, the better, and encouraged people to donate.
To donate or learn more, visit newseniorcenter.com or call (661) 259-9444.
661-287-5525
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