Secret donor pays Yuba County Senior Center's bills for year

Winter may be coming, but the sun is shining on the Yuba County Senior Center for another year.

An anonymous donor, after reading of the center's financial plight, has arranged to cover the center's estimated $48,000 annual costs at the Olivehurst Community Center for a year, giving the center's leadership more time to find permanent funding.

"It's been overwhelming for us," said Irene Broome, the secretary-treasurer for Yuba County Seniors, which operates the center with a library, game room, bingo and more. "It was to the point that we were thinking about what to do with all this stuff."

The community center is owned by the Yuba County Office of Education, which planned to charge $3,000 a month in rent and $1,000 a month for utilities to seniors, beginning Jan. 1.

Yuba County, which had financially supported the center for years, opted earlier this year to end the funding, though officials said they wanted to help the seniors become self-sustaining.

As a result of the donation, the seniors will be able to remain through 2012, Broome said.

Elden Fowler, a foothills resident and writer for the Territorial Dispatch, said the donor approached him after reading a story he wrote on the center's looming financial crisis.

"I felt blessed by the whole thing," said Fowler, who arranged for the donor to meet the seniors and the county office of education to make the donation. "I feel great about it."

Broome said finding permanent funding was a condition the donor put on the one-year reprieve. Within weeks, she and group president Ame Lea Middleton said they should learn whether they'll receive grants, including one for $25,000, to keep going beyond next year.

In the meantime, the seniors have wrapped up a rummage sale and are planning a craft fair for November. But having firm financing in place will help give peace of mind for the near future and help boost center attendance in the long run, Middleton said.

"We have to concentrate on food, that we have lunch here," she said. "Food will bring people in when there's nothing else."

Sue Potter, a volunteer at the center, said the center's members will appreciate knowing it's on better ground financially.

"This place is a godsend," she said, explaining as a result of the center, she gets a meal when she wouldn't otherwise. "It is important for myself, or otherwise I'd be sitting home a lot."

CONTACT reporter Ben van der Meerat 749-4786.