Photograph by Paul Myers
Sue Shannon (right) works out during an aerobics class last week at the Saratoga Senior Center. The center runs the fitness classes three times a week.
Budgets tighten, but program expands
By Oakley Brooks
While Silicon Valley nonprofits have been hurt this year by the local economy's stumble, a small community organization tucked away in the back of the Saratoga Civic Center is calling this a breakthrough year.
The Saratoga Area Senior Coordinating Council, which keeps the West Valley elderly community hopping, has grown to the point that it now hosts 1,500 to 1,700 people a month for 32 different activities. The center is busy enough these days that staff members are scrambling to slot everything from computer classes to yoga instruction to country line dancing into their two main activity rooms.
"It's a nice feeling," says Sheila Arthur, who coordinates and schedules programs for the senior council.
Executive Director Sean O'Leary says that at a recent session of the county's council on aging, one leader asked how many area organizations were in tough financial straits--nearly every attendees' hand went up. But in an October meeting between O'Leary and the Silicon Valley-based Health Trust, the foundation told him the Saratoga council wouldn't qualify for grants this year because it was relatively healthy.
"In light of all the tragedy this year, it was an exceptional year," said O'Leary. "We're real fortunate."
The organization's endowment did take a substantial hit this year, dropping from around $1.6 million to its current level at $1.21 million. And fundraising was down a bit from recent boom years--this past summer's auction netted $15,000 compared to previous year totals around $25,000.
Still, the council managed to collect around $275,000 in grants, donations, funding from the city of Saratoga and fees from adult daycare participants this year--close to 80 percent of its total budget.
"Our routine fundraising seems to be going along pretty well," said Senior Council Board President Jo Trimble.
Trimble gives some of the credit for the organization's vitality to O'Leary, whom she describes as a "people person" but who also says he's running the council "like a business."
O'Leary has built on the foundations of Mary Goulart, the former director who steadily expanded and modernized the organization during her three-year tenure before leaving for the Saratoga Retirement Community in May 2001.
Over the last 10 months, O'Leary has filled out the 16-station computer lab, put a wide-screen, surround-sound system into the TV room for Monday night football, and begun a marketing campaign to promote the council's programs.
Arthur, the program coordinator who led the Saratoga Chamber of Commerce from 1988-'99, says that for too long the senior facility was "the best-kept secret in Saratoga." O'Leary is working to change that--he recently pitched the senior programs to a collection of Saratoga-area religious leaders, and he's been working closely with city officials and the Saratoga Business Development Council to boost the senior council's profile.
"He's extending himself into the community," Trimble says.
Community leaders have been responding to the program's growth. Late last year, city Councilwoman Ann Waltonsmith, who's also a senior council board member, convinced the board to arrange health insurance for O'Leary and future permanent staff members.
And senior organization leaders are working both with the city of Saratoga and nearby Campbell to accommodate further expansion in activity at their center. In developing a master plan for a new civic center, Saratoga officials are looking at a near doubling of senior center floor space from the current 18,000 square feet. Karen Lorenz, who runs the daycare center for seniors needing full-time attention, also asked the city of Campbell to financially support day care in Saratoga. Lorenz says several Campbell residents are in her program already.
While Trimble says she isn't holding her breath for city renovations to senior facilities--city officials have acknowledged it could be up to 15 years before the new civic center is complete--she's looking forward to how the council might utilize the new space. "It will come to fruition some day," she says.
Meanwhile, senior leaders are anticipating that the council's endowment will bounce back this year. O'Leary even envisions a day when the organization's entire budget can be drawn from the endowment's interest.
"We're a long way from that," he said. "But people can dream."
Saratoga, California Since 1955
