Park City and Summit County provide a wide variety of programs and services to its residents (full and part time) as well as our valued visitors. As a community we are drawn to the mountains and cherish all the amenities this incredible environment contributes to our lives.
Collectively we have created a world class resort destination for the ages – all ages. However, there is a group of citizens in our community that are deserving of our special thanks, appreciation, and recognition. In a mining town turned “ghost town,” a generation that reached adulthood in the 1960s and 1970s brought skiing to the forefront. Subsequently, our failing town was reborn. These “pioneers,” now senior citizens themselves, were instrumental in turning Park City and the surrounding communities into the year-round outdoor sport and cultural mecca we know and enjoy today. Our community was founded on the spirit of treasuring and protecting our mountain towns and now we stand proudly on the shoulders of those whose vision became today’s reality.
Today, over 16% of Park City and Summit County’s population is age 60 or more and that percentage continues to increase. Our Park City Senior Center, led by an amazing, committed, and passionate board of directors, struggles to meet the needs of an active, intelligent, and engaged group of community seniors. Unfortunately, current funding only allows the Park City Senior Center to be open Monday and Thursday with limited staffing and facility space.
The Park City Senior Center works hard despite such limited resources to offer a safe and friendly environment, which provides meals, activities, and programs that address social, mental, nutritional, educational, cultural and fitness needs. Such programs and services are just a few community amenities that are intended to provide an opportunity for our senior citizens to “age in place” in a community they helped build which they still consider home.
The need to support the senior population in our community continues to grow as evidenced by the Senior Center membership which has climbed from 70 seniors a few years ago to over 430 today. Clearly additional resources and funding must be allocated to expand and enhance services and programs for this burgeoning population.
The next time you ponder the needs of our community, I encourage you to support any and all efforts that lift up and keep the vital, contributing, ever-increasing seniors in our community a priority.