New Silver Key at Tri-Lakes Senior Center location offers central setting, more space for activities
MONUMENT • It was standing room only in the vestibule at 66 Jefferson St. last week, as community members and supporters gathered for a ribbon-cutting ceremony at the new location of the Silver Key at Tri-Lakes Senior Center.
The center moved into the space inside the Lewis-Palmer School District’s Grace Best Education Center from its previous location in a modular building on the Lewis-Palmer High School campus in August.
Community members gather and enjoy refreshments in one of the rooms of the new Silver Key at Tri-Lakes Senior Center after the ribbon-cutting ceremony last week.
“We have a great partnership with the school district,” said Derek Wilson, chief strategy officer for Silver Key, at the Nov. 14 ceremony. “Superintendent KC Somers as been one of the people whose been supportive of this move.”
Wilson said the new location is ideal because it encourages intergenerational interaction between students, seniors and volunteers, is central to the community and provides more room for programming.
“The seniors win, the community wins and Silver Key wins,” Wilson said. “We want poeple to come out and use the facility, and we want people to be connected.”
He noted the wing of Grace Best the senior center now occupies is temporary.
“This is not a permanent home for us. We’re looking to find that in the next two to five years,” Wilson said.
“It may be a partnership with the town, it may be standalone … we don’t know yet. But we’re happy with this space for right now.”
Tri-Lakes Chamber of Commerce President Terri Hayes facilitated the ceremonial ribbon-cutting, with the ribbon spread across the double doors to the senior center wing of Grace Best. She handed over a pair of oversized blue scissors to Melissa Evans-Bagnall, former Silver Alliance president, to do the cutting. Evans-Bagnall was flanked by Silver Key, school district and local government officials as she cut the ribbon.
The spacious fitness room at the new Silver Key at Tri-Lakes Senior Center, inside the Lewis-Palmer School District 38 Grace Best Education Center in Monument. The center currently offers 23 fitness classes per week, including yoga, pilates, weight-training, tai chi and line dancing.
D38 Superintendent KC Somers said during remarks that the center’s previous location at LPHS was not suitable to renovate. He praised the partnership between the district and Silver Key as something that benefits the entire community.
“A building (Grace Best) that has been here for the better part of 70 years has now found new life,” Somers said, encouraging the 40 or so attendees to “look for ways to become involved with Silver Key.”
Evans-Bagnall, who served on the board of the senior center for six years, said the senior center is “a community success story” of a partnership with businesses, the school district, local government and private donors, all of whom helped to keep the center’s doors open over the years.
“I want to acknowledge the group of people who set up a nonprofit in an area that was very rural and then moved on to create the senior center … to create a safe space for seniors,” she said. “Now we’re here to celebrate the senior center of the future.
“We have a future goal of having our own senior center building somewhere in the Tri-Lakes area, but for right now we love this place. It suits our needs and we just want to thank everybody in the commnity who’s gotten us this far.”
The Silver Key Connections Cafe is part of the Silver Key at Tri-Lakes Senior Center, 66 Jefferson St., Monument.
Added Jason DeaBueno, Silver Key president and CEO, “To be able to see this grow is such a thrill. It’s exciting, and the future is bright. We will shower with love and care and offer every support we can to make this the best senior center in Tri-Lakes. … And I know it’s the only senior center in Tri-Lakes.”
Silver Key merged with the Tri-Lakes Silver Alliance in June.
Sue Walker, who has served as manager of the senior center for the past six years, said “We’ve had Grace Best on our radar and now it’s a dream come true. Silver Key has been amazing to work with, and they offer a lot of activities for our seniors.”
Walker said later that the Silver Alliance put $20,000 into the renovations of the space at Grace Best before moving in the first week of August.
Wilson noted that Silver Key is always in need of volunteers and donors to keep programs going. To learn more or to donate, visit SilverKey.org/trilakes.
A classroom/multipurpose space in the new Silver Key at Tri-Lakes Senior Center, inside the Lewis-Palmer School District 38 Grace Best Education Center in Monument.
Participating in the Nov. 14 ribbon-cutting of the Silver Key at Tri-Lakes Senior Center were, from left: Derek Wilson (chief strategic officer, Silver Key); Monument Trustee Kenneth Kimple; District 38 Superintendent KC Somers; Palmer Lake Mayor-Elect Glant Havenar; Melissa Evans-Bagnall (former Silver Alliance board president); Monument Mayor-Elect Mitchell LaKind; D38 Board of Education Secretary Tiffiney Upchurch; Colorado Springs City Councilman Dave Donelson; and Silver Key President/CEO Jason DeaBueno.