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Superior Senior Center Director Carol Granillo
The new Senior Center Director Carol Granillo was born and raised in Superior. She took on the role as Director in August after working for the Center for four years. Her previous work experience includes working for seven years at Motorola as well as working within various school districts for fourteen years.
The Senior Center is an important part of the community. It provides the town’s seniors with entertainment and social interactions, but it also has a more serious purpose. The Center offers meals, transportation services, legal aid, and blood pressure checks. Recently they helped seniors deal with open enrollment.
The Center supplies a lunch every day. For those who can make it into the main Senior Center, they have a chance to come and eat and socialize. But many seniors are homebound and that’s where the Wheels for Meals Services comes into play. The Center will deliver one hot meal and four cold meals to these seniors once a week. Last month the Center delivered 242 meals.
The new Director is hoping to get more people into to the Senior Center. On a good day 25 seniors will visit. Mostly they come for lunch. Carol would love to start having pastry and coffee on Monday mornings. According to Carol the seniors used to come for coffee and then they would sit and watch TV. They used the Center as a place to mingle and socialize. The socializing part of the Senior Center is something Carol is keen to rebuild. She is eager to try and get more people coming in.
“It’s going to be a working effort,” she told the Superior Sun. “It’s hard to draw people in.”
Carol says as she is learning the job: “Every day is a challenge.” And the hardest part of the job right now is the end of the month paperwork she has to deal with.
The Superior Senior Center has restarted the senior monthly trips. They will be taking two trips a month. On this trip the group was heading to the Walmart in Apache Junction. On the bus is Vera Bribiescas, Gloria Careaga, Barbara Pope, Driver Senior Center Director Carol Granillo, Smiley Arroyos, Cindy Arroyos, and Volunteer Frank Granillo.
The Center has just reinstated monthly field trips. The seniors will be taking two field trips a month. One of the trips will be a “fun trip” and the Site Council will get to decide each “fun trip” destination. The Site Council is made up of seniors who get to make decisions about activities held and road trips.
The Seniors also run the thrift store next door and they run bingo games on Tuesdays and Thursdays at 10 a.m. Bingo is $1 per card and you play the card through the whole game. There is a special Pastry Bingo run once a month. The money made from the store and bingo is used to pay the store rent and to buy prizes for future bingo games.
This month the Pastry Bingo is being held on Dec. 22 at 10 a.m. Also on that day is the Senior Christmas party. The party will start at 11 a.m. and chicken will be served as the main dish for the meal.
The Superior Senior Center is open 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. Monday through Thursday. Lunch is served at noon. There is a suggested donation of $2 for seniors and $4 for non-seniors for each meal.
The Superior Senior Center is located at 360 W Main St., Superior, AZ, 85173-2525; Tel: (520) 689-5182.
Article by Cat Brown
There are news or informational items frequently written by staff or submitted to the Copper Basin News, San Manuel Miner, Superior Sun, Pinal Nugget or Oracle Towne Crier for inclusion in our print or digital products. These items are not credited with an author.
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