Carnation’s July 4 events at Sno Valley Senior Center were as crowded as ever.

The three events — a spaghetti dinner on July 3, and strawberry shortcake and a quilt raffle on July 4 — raised over $6,000 for the center. That is around 1.5 percent of the center’s annual budget.

“We did better this year than we have in previous years,” said Amara Oden, the center’s director.

The center still has a far way to go toward reaching its $125,000 fundraising goal.

Often financially hard-pressed, the senior center has been hard hit by the economic recession, which has caused several funding sources to dry up. The organization is supported by grants, corporate sponsors, membership dues, usage fees and public money.

The city of Carnation had to cut its support for the center from its budget due to a decline in revenue, but has expressed the possibility of adding it back in, according to Oden.

Duvall, King County and the state also provide money to the center.

The senior center, which was formed by Valley residents in 1975, serves 24 percent of all adults over 50 years old in the Lower Valley, Oden said.

“And more come every day,” she added.

The center offers meals, classes and other resources.

“We keep seniors in their homes,” she said. “We keep seniors limber, prevent falls. We keep people from slipping through the cracks.”

Without the center’s support, many of its clients would need in-home care or have to go to nursing homes, according to Oden.

The Lower Valley has no nursing or assisted living homes, so this would mean moving out of the Valley.

The senior center almost had to cut its adult day health program, which helps adults who are disabled, frail or have dementia.

The center would not have been able to pay for the program’s nurse — who coordinates care with clients’ doctors — after the state cut 70 percent of its money for the class. However, Snoqualmie Valley Hospital paid for the nurse.

If the program had been cut, six people would have had to go to assisted living homes and two would have been home with no additional care, said Oden.