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CORNELIUS The Lake Norman community is being asked to save one of its most precious resources: the senior center on West Catawba Avenue, which provides health and financial services to hundreds of older adults each week.
In response to a $66,000 funding cut from the United Way, the Charlotte-Mecklenburg Senior Centers board of directors voted last week to close the North Mecklenburg Senior Center unless it can raise enough money by the end of September to make up the loss.
Anticipating a cut from the United Way, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Senior Centers froze staff salaries, reduced benefits and made service cuts to its three other centers earlier this year, said Trena Palmer, executive director of the nonprofit agency. But the cut was steeper than anticipated for an already lean budget, she said.
About 100 senior adults gathered at the North Mecklenburg center Thursday as Palmer and her board announced a “Save the North Meck Center” fundraising campaign.
“It's a solemn day, but a hopeful day,” Palmer told the crowd. “All of us combined can do this.”
Palmer told the crowd United Way money helped Charlotte-Mecklenburg Senior Centers provide services in North Mecklenburg starting in 2005 and to open the center in October 2007. “And now we face the possibility of having to close it as a result of United Way funding cuts,” she said. Palmer, who fought tears in announcing the possible closing, said more details about the fundraising campaign would be announced in the next two weeks. But residents can send checks to the agency immediately, she said.
Palmer urged the crowd to drum up financial support among businesses they frequent and to scout rent-free spaces in the community.
Mecklenburg County commissioner Karen Bentley of Huntersville attended the announcement to show her support, she said, “and to urge the Lake Norman community to step up to the plate and give to the senior center of North Mecklenburg, and keep the level of services that are here.”
Charlotte-Mecklenburg Senior Centers operates its centers and various other programs on a total budget of about $1million. The United Way cut came from the $220,000 it was to give the agency this year, Palmer said.
Seniors in the crowd said they were stunned to learn of the possible closing. “We come here to get stronger,” said Penny Greenwood, 65, who has lived in Cornelius for 25 years.
She and her friend Dot Hardin, 75, also of Cornelius, said the center is invaluable because of its exercise classes and lineup of guest speakers, who cover everything from financial to health issues.
“It's been a big help to me since Jim's death,” Hardin said of her late husband.
