In the late 1980s, Ruth Tolmasoff had “the fun job,” planning activities and events for the Mount Si Senior Center. She was often busy decorating for a party or other festivities when her children stopped by, so they began to wonder about their mom’s job.

“They would come in and ask me if people paid me to do that,” Tolmasoff recalled.

In 1990, though, she made the transition from program coordinator to center director, and a month later, a flood left the center building with 18 inches of water standing inside. A multi-year project to raise the building started almost immediately, and for the next 9 to 12 months, most of the building had no floor covering.

It might have seemed like the fun was over, but it was actually just beginning. While the repairs and cleanup were completed, “everyone just kind of kept their sense of humor,” Tolmasoff said. Staff members, volunteers and clients all demonstrated the same spirit that sparked the creation and growth of the senior center over the years. “This is the best job in the world, really,” she said.

Tolmasoff is in her busy office, talking about her past work with the senior center, and looking ahead to her retirement in a few months time. She has been the director of the center since October, 1990, and has seen several very successful programs either launched or expanded on her watch, furthering the mission of the center to help seniors maintain their independence.

Snoqualmie Valley Transportation is a great example.

“The senior center always was about transportation, getting seniors back and forth,” Tolmasoff said, but she saw that “there were many, many other people in the community that had the same needs for transportation that the seniors did.” With a government grant, the senior center launched Snoqualmie Valley Transportation in 2003 with one bus, running 12-hour days. A partnership with the Snoqualmie Tribe a few years later allowed the program to expand to six buses today, but there is still more demand, so Tolmasoff plans to have a consultant review the program and make some efficiency recommendations.

“We also have our own nutrition program now, which is huge for us,” she said. Another grant enabled the center to hire its own cook, develop menus, and move away from the “institutional” heat-and-serve meals they had been providing.

The lunch program intends to provide a third of the calories the typical 70 year-old man needs in a day, and Tolmasoff said the center’s goal is to get as many of those calories as possible from fresh and local sources. “It makes a lot of sense, so we planted some herbs in the atrium, and we’re fortunate that there are still farmers down in the lower Valley, so we’re going to see if we can work something out with them.”

One of the most amazing successes that the center has enjoyed is its thrift store, located in the back of the building. Started around 2004—“it was one of those years when it seemed like everyone was threatening to cut our funding,” Tolmasoff said—the thrift store was expected to help supplement other funding sources for the non-profit center.

“I think we were hoping it would make $100 a week,” Tolmasoff said. Last year, the thrift store brought in $85,000 for senior center programs, and took out almost none. “It’s all donation-driven and run by volunteers.”

Volunteers fill many roles in the center today, but as times have changed, professional instructors and care providers have also been enlisted to offer services there. Programs at the center are all related in some way to helping seniors continue living in their own homes and still enjoy the medical care, mobility, personal services, and social interactions they’ve always had in the Valley.

“People have always wanted to stay independent, and in their own homes,” Tolmasoff said.

When she first started work at the center in 1988, she said she didn’t have any particular experience in the field except a true like for seniors. “This is just the right job for me,” she said. She’s equally sure about her retirement in August, too.

“Once I made the decision to retire, and said it out loud, I knew it was the right thing for me.”