Campbell Senior Center to celebrate 50 years Wednesday

Jess Longmire was the original director beginning in November 1974

By Charlotte Underwood

LAFOLLETTE, TN (WLAF)- The Campbell County Senior Center is celebrating a milestone of 50 years on Wednesday, November 6^th. There will be an Open House event at the center from 8am till 2 pm with coffee and cake served. There will be “memorabilia set up” and people are invited to come out and learn more about what the senior center does and classes that it offers for the senior citizens of Campbell County. The center is located at 102 South 8th Street in LaFollette on the corner with East Central Avenue.

State Representative Dennis Powers, State Senator Ken Yager, County Mayor Jack Lynch, and “all the county’s mayors have been invited to the event.”

“We want to celebrate our anniversary and let everyone know all the great opportunities we have for seniors at the center,” Senior Center Administrative Assistant Pat Orta said.

Cliff Kohlmeyer is the director for the Senior Center. He, along with Pat Orta and Senior Center staff were recently honored by the Campbell County Commission with a proclamation for all that they do in the community for area seniors.

The center does everything from its meals on wheels program to craft classes, educational classes for seniors, social opportunities and more.

The CCSC has a mission of “providing education, recreation, nutrition and support in the areas of physical and mental health for the seniors of our county who are mentally and physically independent.”

“The center does do meals on wheels to our local area, we also do activities, not only arts and crafts, but exercises and evidence-based things to help us stay young,” Orta said, and for the past five decades, that’s just what the Campbell County Senior Center has been doing, “improving the lives of area seniors.”

The Campbell County Senior Center was “incorporated on November 21st of 1974 by a group of people who got together, saw the need and decided to start one,” Orta said.

“They were meeting in different places; at one point in time, the old LaFollette School off of Tennessee and Beech Street was a location. They chartered this building that we’re currently located at in 1995,” Orta said.

According to the original charter for the senior center, Jess Longmire was the original director. Charter members are listed as John Taylor, Horace Brown, Annie Lou McKamey, Columbia Sharp, Jess Longmire-Director and Cathy Martin as Office Secretary.

Original Campbell County Senior Center Board members are listed as Charles Owens, Estes Sharp, Gladys Fox, Jeanette Lawson, Tom Troxell and Dennis Prewitt.

The Senior Center recently joined the National Council on Aging (NCOA), which is an organization with the Mission to “Improve the lives of millions of older adults, especially those who are struggling.”

“It’s a great thing for us to be a part of, it helps keeps us informed on the things we need to be   

NCOA has good information on its website and has been improving the lives of older adults since 1950.

The Campbell County Senior Center has an ongoing popular craft class called Helping Hands.

“They sew, knit, crochet, quilt and do all kinds of stuff to help the local community. They make quilts and adult bibs for the folks at the nursing homes, and more,” Orta said.

Seniors at the center just finished holding a cooking class that was a big hit. That program will be back again in January. The center hosts different programs each month, everything from scam alerts that help seniors hold on to their money, to computer classes aimed at helping seniors stay in touch and develop new skills.

An exciting program about to start at the senior center is called “A Matter of Balance” and is designed to help older adults maintain their balance and reduce the possibility of falls. These classes will be every Tuesday and Thursday from 10:30 to noon starting Nov. 5^th and running through December 3^rd.

“It helps us understand that falls are controllable, and balance is everything; we’ve had this class once before and it was a great program,” Orta said.

According to Orta, classes like this are the backbone of the center, helping older adults live longer and have a higher quality of life.

“We try to not only manage physical wellbeing, but emotional and financial wellbeing as well; we want to help people age and get older with dignity.”

For more information about the Campbell County Seniors Center and the programs it offers, call 423.562.6672. You can also check the Seniors Citizen Center out on Facebook at the page, Senior Citizens of Campbell County of LaFollette Tennessee. A full calendar of events and senior center daily food menus is available on Facebook as well. (WLAF NEWS PUBLISHED-11/05/2024-6AM)