Wedding Club composed of couples (50 at this time) who have celebrated 50 to 65 years of married life. These clubs are, in effect, autonomous. Volunteers and staff help when needed.

Membership has made a steady and constant growth throughout the years, in spite of the expected high death rate, moving, and sickness. In June of 1955 the membership totaled 270; in 1956, 400; in 1957, 650; in 1958, 817; in 1960, 950; and in May 1961, 1,150. Every section of the city is represented. Some members are from the rural areas. An unusual feature of the membership is that there are five men to each four women, probably because three industries and one labor union pay the dues of those of their retired employees who wish to belong to the Center. Some members, whose dues are paid by their previous employers, show their appreciation by donating toward a fund for members who are unable to pay their dues.

Need for New Facilities

By the summer of 1956 the membership and attendance had outgrown the first building. The crafts and other features of the program were curtailed by lack of space.

Again, the board of trustees, the local press, radio, and the mem

bers came to the rescue. There were some discouraging delays, but in 25 months from the date of the original dedication, an abandoned school building was bought, with the deed in the name of Senior Citizens, Inc. Again, the merchant who gave one-half of the money for the original program came to the group's aid, underwriting the initial cost of the building which was bought at public auction. Thousands of other citizens also contributed to the new home for the Center. Money was contributed, in amounts from 5 cents to $15,600, as was labor, materials, skills, furniture, paint, stoves, folding tables, chairs, and craft equipment.

The members held bake sales, card parties, and gave money to buy materials for curtaining all 47 windows on the first floor. They set up large tables, borrowed sewing machines, and made the curtains. They hung curtain fixtures and bamboo shades at the windows. A Girl Scout troop moved the office material. Volunteers and members helped with the final arrangements for the second dedication.

The result was an attractively furnished building. There is a well-equipped kitchen for coffee breaks and lunches. A gameroom provides a place well removed from other program areas. A large cheerful living room contains a 24-inch television, comfortable chairs, and couches for small meetings and conversation groups. An auditorium seats 100 comfortably, with a piano, record player, and public address system to pipe programs throughout the building.

The men's craftroom contains tools for woodworking and a billiard table. The women's craftroom contains sewing machines, quilting frames, a ceramic kiln, and large storage space for the Holiday Market materials. A smaller room serves as an office. The spacious hallway has much used space. There are display cases at either end of the hall and chairs are arranged for "conversational groups." When service projects are underway, large tables are placed in the hall where cheerful people sit and stuff envelopes, collate booklets, and staple newsletters. They converse and draw in the newcomer as he steps in the door. The registration desk and the bulletin boards are placed in the versatile hallway. A shuffleboard layout is centered down the hall's length.

The building is centrally located, just a few blocks from the heart. of the city and a block from the city buslines. There is parking space and easy accessibility from two wide streets. The rooms are bright and cheerful with many large windows. Colors have been used artistically to make the rooms pleasant.

There are a few steps into the building, but it was possible to build a ramp to the parking lot, enabling those who must come in wheelchairs, on walkers, or on crutches to get into the building with ease.

Professional and Clerical Staff

The staff has grown from one full-time director to four staff members and a custodian. An assistant director is in charge of crafts and assists with programing. A "group worker" assists the 70 committees and helps with classes and other groups. An office secretary assists with all office work. Employed half time, the three assistants and custodian stagger their hours to meet the needs of the program. Members and volunteers multiply leadership manpower.

Volunteer Assistance

Volunteers augment staff leadership substantially. Volunteers have studied their role. They have learned from their mistakes. They have learned to avoid the patronizing approach. They have quite generally come to agree that one of their roles is that of "the listener." Some of the volunteers, during their days at the Center, do little except

circulate among the members, making friends, listening, chatting, and introducing new members. The volunteer, seated with a single member, or several, and just idly discussing the weather, last night's TV, the parking problem, the cost of living, or the latest fashions in dresses, is doing something casually that cannot be specifically programed. The volunteers provide human warmth and receptivity. They can be successful at the job only if they do it because they like it. Volunteers, who have tried working in the Center with a feeling of self-rightousness and a backpat of "see how friendly I am" are soon spotted for what they are, and are rejected. The "heartbeat" of the Hamilton Center is its pervading principle that the members are just that-members, and not wards. Violating this principle would turn the area into a clinic with all of the implications of patients seeking therapy-and nothing could be further from the real spirit of the Hamilton Center. Opportunity for friendship in a warm climate of participation and accomplishment is the goal.

Service clubs provide money for special projects, bus tickets for members, issue invitations to their local-talent play rehearsals, and give transportation for special events-a tour of the city to see the Christmas lights, invitations to "pancake breakfasts," opportunities to visit an ice show, and on and on as ingenuity begets ingenuity.

Girl Scouts often act as hostesses for the Center. They and the YWCA provide outings at camp for the Senior Citizens. The Red Cross Motor Corps provides transportation one day each week for those unable to get to the Center because of physical disabilities. The local safety council presents a program on some safety factor once a month. Flags have been presented by patriotic organizations. Such thoughtful gestures are frequent and the opportunities seem unlimited.

In turn, the Senior Citizens share their talents. They dress dolls for the Salvation Army "Christmas in Every Home." They collect food for the baskets. They help with the registration of requests for the baskets. They assist by passing out safety information to each purchaser of an auto license, by collating thousands of safety booklets, and by parking cars for rallies.

One hundred thousand envelopes have been stuffed for various agencies whose own staffs were too limited for special mailing drives. Groups of women members have served as babysitters at large church meetings where as many as 15 to 100 children need supervision. The members have been involved extensively in the making of hospital bandages.

The implications of this for those who volunteer to serve at the Center are clear. They must volunteer with a sense of "what I do" with the members and not what may I do to or for the members.

Even where volunteers teach a specific subject or counsel in a single area, they are at the Center as participants and not as principals. College and high school students assist. The participation of younger volunteers, particularly during vacations, brings color and liveliness to the Center. One young person summed it up simply: "I like being here. I don't feel that I'm here to take care of people who don't know how to take care of themselves. I learn a lot. I enjoy the friends I make. It's more like being in a family than anything else. I guess I just like people."

Community Groups Cooperate

Regular visits are made to the Center by representatives of agencies and organizations whose programs are pertinent to Senior Citizens. New services are described, questions are answered, after which the speaker joins the members at the coffee break for a get-acquainted time. Doctors, lawyers, hospital directors, nurses, dietitians-many community and professional leaders are enlisted for assistance.

Some community groups provide programs for fun. Anything that is interesting, instructive, informative, or "just plain fun" is fare for