Directors letter – January 2023
Happy New Year! I am excited to be writing my first ever Director’s Letter for the Sno-Valley Senior Center Newsletter! First, I want to say thank you to our Director Emeritus, Lisa Yeager. She has been a strong leader and a great mentor to me. Lisa will be at Sno-Valley though June 2023, shepherding the Affordable Senior Apartment project, and working on grant writing.
A little bit about me; I’ve been at the Sno-Valley Senior Center since March 2015 as the Program Coordinator, and then as the Assistant Director starting in June 2021. I live in Auburn with my husband of over 8 years, Ben, and we’re hoping to add a puppy to the family soon. I enjoy puzzles, board games, and True Crime Podcasts (which help me get through the drive to and from work).
As we reflect on the past year and look forward to 2023, I’m encouraged to be sharing with you some of our
accomplishments from the past year, and goals for 2023.
- In 2022, we served over 11,000 hot, made-from-scratch lunches for dine-in and pick-up.
- We delivered 3,614 frozen Meals on Wheels, helping 30 local, homebound seniors and their families receive
regular deliveries of nutritious food (this is more than we have ever delivered, and almost double what we
delivered last year). - 130 individual volunteers have given over 8,000 hours of their time
- 1,187 individuals have come through the Sno-Valley Senior Center for services or to participate in programming.
We are currently in the process of hiring a new Program Coordinator, and excited to be bringing on a new team member in 2023. We should have more information to share about the senior housing project in the new year as well, in terms of funding and building timeline.
I hope you’ll join us for the Annual Member Meeting on Wednesday, January 11 at 12:30pm. At this meeting you’ll get to discuss with Board Members, your priorities and questions for the Sno-Valley Senior Center, learn about the goals for 2023 and how we ended 2022. This meeting will be held in-person and you can call 425-333-4152 to sign-up for lunch that day. This is also a chance to learn more and meet our newest Board Members, Carole Teshima and Nancy Gass.
As a reminder, we have made the decision to serve Community Dining Meals for dine-in only starting January 3. Serving meals to-go was a wonderful service we were able to offer during the pandemic, however due to the cost of the containers and time constraints as we start to serve more meals, we decided to take this step. If you have a meal ordered for dine-in and an issue arises which will cause you to be late, please let us know and we will work with you.
Thank you for being a part of this wonderful community! The programs and services we offer would not be possible without all of our wonderful volunteers, donors, and participants!
If you have comments, questions, or concerns, please feel free to reach out to me at kiraa@soundgenerations.org or 425-333-4152.
Kira Avery, Executive Director