by Dennis Dalman
news@thenewsleaders.com
Members of the Sartell Senior Connection all have a “wait-and-see” excitement about the new center they will move into next fall.
“We’ll just have to wait and see,” said member Gerri Boser. “We’re not sure what it will look like yet because there’s going to be extensive remodeling in that part of the building. So we’ll just stay patient and work with what we get.”
Thanks to the Sartell-St. Stephen School District, the Sartell Senior Connection was given a temporary headquarters in a double-large classroom a few years ago. But extensive remodeling in the School District Building required the seniors to vacate that room because the remodeling project at the school has already begun for next year. The district’s pre-school programs will be located in that building as of the next school year.
The senior organization is promised a new headquarters in the building’s east wing.
On Friday, May 18, senior citizens and college students moved all of the furnishings and books out of the large room — couches, tables and thousands of books. The furniture they moved to a storage unit they rented for the purpose. College students, who help at the Sartell-St. Stephen Community Education program, were eager to help – carrying the many boxes of packed books up to the second floor of the School District Building. They will stay there until the new “Center” is ready, hopefully in early September.
In the meantime, all programs for the Sartell Senior Connection – that is, programs at the School District Building – have been cancelled for the summer. The “Coffee and Conversation” program at 9 a.m. every Thursday at Country Manor will continue throughout the summer.
“Our moving day went really, really well,” Boser said. “The college students who helped were so nice about it.”
Boser is encouraging seniors and others to save any books they might have, as the Sartell Senior Connection plans to expand its already extensive lending library in the new headquarters.