‘It’s time’

In a cabinet on the wall next to her office, Springfield Senior Center Director Terri Emerson keeps a variety of presents and trinkets given to her by senior center members over her 17-year tenure.

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2016-05-10 / Front Page ‘It’s time’ Senior center director to retire in July after 17 years By Cameron Paquette cameronp@eagletimes.com Springfield Senior Center Director Terri Emerson stands next to a cabinet full of gifts from current and former senior center members that have accumulated over the course of her 17 years as director. — CAMERON PAQUETTE Springfield Senior Center Director Terri Emerson stands next to a cabinet full of gifts from current and former senior center members that have accumulated over the course of her 17 years as director. — CAMERON PAQUETTE SPRINGFIELD — In a cabinet on the wall next to her office, Springfield Senior Center Director Terri Emerson keeps a variety of presents and trinkets given to her by senior center members over her 17-year tenure. Among the cards, poems, and figurines is a wooden plaque with a poem titled “Foot Prints On The Shore,” a gift from former member Edward Herold, who wrote on the back of the gift that he gave her the plaque for her ability to “bring harmony out of chaos” and create something beautiful. Emerson said she will bring the plaque with her to the cottage she and her husband own on Parker Lake in West Glover, Vermont after her official retirement on July 15. “Some days it’s good to go back and look and think about [senior center members],” she said, looking at the various gifts that have accumulated on the shelves over the years. The town is currently seeking resumes for the full-time position with a salary ranging between $36,000 and $42,000 per year. According to an advertisement on the town website, the town is seeking someone with a Bachelor’s degree in a human services field or equivalent in experience and education. A three-person advisory board will be interviewing candidates for the position, according to Emerson. The deadline for resumes is May 20. The senior center, located at 139 Main St., offers a wide range of free programs for area seniors including weekly fitness activities such as chair yoga and strength training that Emerson worked to incorporate. “I’m finding that the new seniors coming in are looking for more health-related activities,” Emerson said. The town-funded Springfield Senior Center was founded in 1963 by its original director, Eleanor Hilliard. Emerson is the third director in the senior center’s history, taking over from Katherine “Kay” Mitchell in 1999. Prior to her role at the senior center, Emerson was a case manager for the Council on Aging in Southeastern Vermont. Emerson said that her being only the third director in the senior center’s history shows the quality of the organization Hilliard created in 1963, citing higher turnover despite greater staff numbers at other senior centers. What makes the Springfield Senior Center successful in this regard is the involvement of seniors in what goes on, Emerson said. “Everybody pitches in. There’s always something going on,” said Dennis Menard, a member who stopped in Monday to put new feet on some of the center’s chairs. For whoever becomes the fourth director in the senior center’s 53-year history, Emerson said that realizing the importance of seniors in the community is paramount. “Seniors are vital members of the community. They’re the ones that built the community and continue to [build the community],” she said. Emerson said she will miss the more than 270 active members who participate in senior center activities, a “rowdy, but friendly” group that she thinks of as her family. “I could tell you something special about every one of them,” Emerson said. Emerson wears one of the gifts, a corsage made by a former member who lives in New York, 91-year-old Flossie Cook, every year to the senior center’s Senior of the Year celebration. Cook made the corsage for her after learning that senior center directors never wore corsages for the annual celebration. “She still sends a Christmas corsage” every year for the senior center’s Christmas Bazaar, Emerson said. Emerson said she would still like to volunteer at the senior center and take part in activities with the other seniors. “I’ll still be here, I just won’t have the responsibilities. I can play and have fun like [members] do,” she said. “I’m turning 66. My husband retired when he was 60,” she said. “It’s time.”