The Sno-Valley Senior Center is on the move. With the receipt of a $280,000 federal grant, the center has accumulated the funding needed for the early phases of a multi-year remodel project on its building at 4610 Stephens Ave., Carnation.
During the first phase of the $600,000 remodel—the addition of storage, program space and restrooms to the second floor, replacement of the center’s heat pump, and installation of a building-wide sprinkler system—the center will be based at Camp Don Bosco, two miles south of Carnation. Center staff are currently packing up everything they’ll need for the four to six months they expect to be displaced.
All staff, and most programs will be housed at the camp, starting Friday, Sept. 9, with the restart of EnhanceFitness classes and the hot lunch program. By the following Monday, nearly all regular programs will be on schedule, including Adult Day Health.
Only a handful of center offerings will be moved to different locations, mainly because of space limitations.
“We have people come from all over the Valley for our fun stuff,” said Senior Center Board President Kathy Wheeler. So fund-raisers like the steak dinner and the fall auction had to be moved to bigger facilities.
Carnation Elementary School will host the community steak dinners this fall. Dinners are planned for Saturday, Oct. 8 and Nov. 19. For dessert in November, diners can bid on an assortment of home-made pies following the dinner. The fall auction will be Saturday, Oct. 22, at the Restaurant at Mount Si Golf Course in Snoqualmie.
The weekly Bastyr Naturopathic Clinic, offering general care to the entire community by appointment, will move to the Carnation Bible Church, 32615 N.E. 45 St. The by-appointment-only clinic will start Friday, Sept. 2, in a portable office behind the church. Call (425) 333-4152 to schedule an appointment.
Two programs, the center’s lending library and computer labs, won’t be offered during the remodel
Re-in-Carnation, the thrift shop that supports the center, will not be affected by the project, and will remain at 31845 W. Commercial St.
The move is scheduled to take only one day, but the center will close for the week of Sept. 1-8, with several days of packing and unpacking planned for before and after the Sept. 6 move date. Staff members have been dreading the day they had to make the move—“Imagine packing up everything in your office to move it!” says the center’s activities director Kate Miller—but they are looking forward to returning to their new and much-improved building at 4610 Stephens Ave., Carnation.
This is the first step in a plan to expand the center’s services both to seniors and the entire community. Additional projects being planned, if grant funding is available, are: new siding and windows for the entire building in phase 3; expansion of the center’s entry with a solarium, phase 4; construction of facilities for a larger Adult Day Health program, phase 5; and a major addition and remodel of the center’s workhorse kitchen, phase 6.
Camp Don Bosco is at 1401 327th Ave. NE. To reach the camp from SR 203, turn onto 11th Street Northeast, then follow the signs, veering left onto 324th Way, Northeast, then turning right onto 327th Avenue Northeast. Camp is currently in session, but tours of the camp have been arranged for Wednesday, Aug. 31, from 1 to 3 p.m.
Shuttle service will be available to the camp, as well, including for members who had been able to walk to the center before the move. Call (425) 333-4009 or (877) 415-3632 to schedule a ride.
Updates on the project will be announced in the center newsletter, and on its website, www.snovalleysenior.org.
