The Lakes Region Senior Center (LRSC) has reopened after being closed due to the pandemic. The Center has been open for 12 years after a group of retirees from Windham and Gorham decided that the seniors in the community needed a place to get together. It is a non-profit organization funded by membership and a few community benefactors.
Ex-officio, board member, and ex-president of the center for 9 years, Blanche Alexander is “so glad that they finally let us come in.” Alexander describes LRSC as taking up a lot of her life and time but “it has been wonderful.”
The Center’s mission is to provide safe, diverse, cost-effective activities in order to promote personal growth through socialization, participation, and leadership. Open 9 a.m. to 1 p.m., the LRSC is a drop-in center, and membership, $20 per year, is open to anyone fifty and up.
David Alexander, the Center’s current PR contact, considers it to be an “incentive to get out of the house and be with others for conversation, great muffins and making new friends.”
Rod Nickerson, a current member of LRSC since the first grand opening, agrees that the Center “gets me out of the house” and even “helped keep my sanity.”
Many of the members and board members feel that the Center is especially important to help with senior loneliness. David Alexander describes the goal of LRSC, “To have people come, like they’ve lost a loved one, they’re lonely, they live alone, they have a place to come and socialize.”
Janice Dunlap has been participating in activities since the Center first opened. She is a Gorham High Alum who lost her husband in 2007. While her kids have treated her well, LRSC has given her the “chance to get out of the house. Meet new people. Make new friends. Made me not feel quite so isolated.”
Between luncheons, puzzles, guest speakers, and trips, the Center has proved to be extremely beneficial to the community’s senior citizens. The Gorham community is lucky to have such an open and welcoming center.