Here we are seemingly in the middle of the year but for the Senior Center this is the start of the year. Our fiscal year as well as our membership year runs from July 1 through June 30. Membership dues should be paid by the end of July at the latest.

July 1 also brings to the Senior Center a new chef, Julie Bellefleur. Ken Perry, the Senior Center former chef is moving on and has a challenging and interesting job as a state inspector, inspecting food vendor facilities at fairs across the state. Julie, our new chef will prepare and serve her first meal next Wednesday, July 10.

At the moment, barbecued chicken is planned. She hopes to grill the chicken outside and get some help from a couple of special guests. Make sure you have reservations made by Monday, July 8.

Since it is the start of new things, I thought it might be of interest to remember some of the past. In the entryway to the Wiscasset Community Center building is a plaque listing the names of the building committee. Two of those names are of people connected with the Senior Center.

They are Dick Grondin and Wallace Hart (deceased). Remembering that time, Dick recently said, “When we were in the design phase of the WCC/WSC, the building committee had a representative whose job was looking out for the Seniors.  His name was Wally Hart. He was very vocal and he is the reason we have not one but two restrooms inside the Seniors room.”

Now perhaps we do not want to remember Wally as the man who added the two restrooms but it does show the detailed view and analysis that Wally put into his job. I did know Wally and he took a lot of pride in the building he helped to design, especially the dining room and kitchen.

Dick also said, “The initial design of the building included a Senior Center and a Community Meeting Room for town functions. Early in the design phase, Maine Yankee announced that they would be shutting down. At that time, we got worried about getting funding from taxes (without M.Y.) to operate the place and it was decided to change the Community Meeting Room to a fitness room to bring in more income for the WCC side.”

Wallace Hart and his wife Phyllis continued to play major roles at the Senior Center during those early years of the new facility. When Wally passed on, Phyllis got together with a few others to create the Scholarship Fund. Wally had spent much of his life in the education field and was particularly involved with the woodworking trade.

When the Fund was established, Phyllis made a sizable donation to the Fund in memory of her husband.

The following is from the 1999 Senior Center Report: “This was our first full year at the new Community Center. We continued to enjoy the new facilities and started to expand the activities … In October we started the Wednesday evening meals. These have proved to be very popular and well attended. Overall they have been profitable and we will continue them as long as the income at least matches the expenses for the evening … The highlight of the year was the Community Christmas Dinner held the night of December 22. We had 72 paying diners that evening. We opened reservations for that evening to include Wiscasset Community Center members as well as Senior Center members and billed the event as ‘adding community to the Community Center.’”

Once again I was not at the cribbage tournament on Tuesday and I was unable to get the scores. The cribbage tournament winners on Thursday, June 27 were Leonard Foss first, Gail Thayer second, Tiger Chubbuck third, Dick Barnard (I said I would not mention that he was low but…) low score and Barbara Chubbuck, Tiger Chubbuck, Dick Grondin and Della Hilton tied for the high hand.

Meals for next week:

Reservations, please! Call 207-882-8230 at least 2 days in advance for meal reservations.

Wednesday, July 10 – Dinner, barbecued chicken

Thursday, July 11 – Lunch, TBA