Senior citizens reflect personality of each community

May 22—The needs of senior citizens vary from community to community, according to local leaders who assist in putting programming together to benefit older residents of Ashtabula County.

Even in communities with similar demographics it the senior centers form with different expectations, said Country Neighbor Executive Director Barbara Klingensmith.

All Ashtabula County senior centers were faced with a difficult hurdle to climb when the coronavirus pandemic hit the nation in the spring of 2020, forcing the centers to close.

The senior centers throughout the county came back with different levels of intensity. After COVID-19 rules were relaxed the senior centers renewed their work but many older people were still not excited about returning to large groups of people.

Ashtabula Senior Center Executive Director Lisa Bruckman said there was a solid rebuild after the pandemic then there was a ceiling problem that caused the center to be closed for months but things are close to pre-pandemic levels.

She said the Center for Active Living has close to the same amount of people involved in programming but many of the people are different.

In the southern part of Ashtabula County the senior centers provide different services and feel, Klingensmith said.

"At Orwell we have a lot of different programming," she said.

She said the center has experimented with a wider variety of programming that seems to meet people's needs.

"We are looking at this a little differently," Klingensmith said of the places that create their own culture.

The Andover Senior Center has regular programming that is the focus of the activities, she said.