From:
To: City Council
Cc: Katie Davis
Subject: Sebastopol Area Senior Center
Date: Monday, March 11, 2024 8:02:55 PM
City CouncilI am writing to request that the City Council not cut funding to the Sebastopol Area Senior Center.
A significant number of Sebastopol’s residents are senior citizens (more than 30%). Many of these residents rely on the Senior Center for various reasons such as transportation, meals, socializing, education, physical health and general well-being, just to name a few. Without the Senior Center and all that it offers many would not get out at all. The Center is a vital part of many, many people’s lives.
I personally have benefitted greatly from being a part of the Sebastopol Area Senior Center. I volunteer and co-lead the ukulele club. This club is so much more than simply playing an instrument. It is about friendship, laughter, and joy. All of us who participate look forward to our weekly sessions. It is good for our mental health, our physical abilities and our souls. I am sure that this is not unique to just our group. I am sure that most if not all of the classes/clubs/groups feel the same way. I have also benefitted from the many presentations I have attended at the Senior Center. I have learned about disaster/emergency preparation, organizing my financial life, music and the brain, how to prevent falling and much more.
The Senior Center offers so much for so may people. Not only seniors benefit from the center.
Some involved with the Sebastopol Area Senior Center are not senior citizens and their lives are enriched by being exposed to all of the knowledge and life experience offered by senior citizens.
Our Senior Center is a gem. It is something that should be celebrated and protected.
Sebastopol’s Senior Center is such a prize that I know of people who come all the way from Santa Rosa to partake in all that our Center offers. For them it is worth the trouble of taking the bus here because our Center is so special. When you walk through the front door at the Sebastopol Area Senior Center it feels like entering somebody's home. It is warm and welcoming and it is somebody’s home. It is home to all of us who are part of this Center.
Please don’t defund the Sebastopol Area Senior Center. It is too important to so many citizens of Sebastopol and beyond.
Thank you in advance for your time and consideration.
Sincerely,
Cindia Brody
25 year resident of Sebastopol