Oswego Senior Center, now the Oswego Senior and Community Center, is happily moving into its forever home at the site of the former Oswego Police Station, 3525 US Highway 34, Oswego.
Oswego Senior Center officially changed its name to Oswego Senior and Community Center, and will open its new facility to reach out to a younger group of. “Those 55 to 70 years olds don’t think of themselves as seniors,” said Dave Barriball, executive director of Oswego Senior and Community Center. “We want to entice younger people to discover what we have to offer, and new programming will focus on greater community involvement.”
Barriball is thrilled to be in the final stages of opening the new center. “This is a perfect location and a perfect building for our purposes,” he said. “We have 23,000 square feet available, and half the basement is unfinished, so we have the ability to build it out to be anything we want. “I like the fact that the building was built by the people of Oswego to serve the people of Oswego, and we are turning it back to do just that. It is a perfect symbiotic relationship.”
According to Barriball, even the jail cells are valuable. “These may seem useless at first, but we need storage space for our gift shop supplies, our lending space for wheelchairs, walkers, and items we rent out, and we can be called upon to be an emergency shelter, so these old jail cells can be used for storage of emergency shelter supplies. It will work out well for us, from a functional point of view,” he said.
“We had hoped to move our programs in by March 1st, but we may be delayed a bit,” he said. The Fire Department needs to see that we have updated all sprinklers and our fire alarm system to the current codes.” Next in the plan is to officially begin a capital campaign to help pay for all the improvements to the building with more news coming out soon.
The new building is truly the forever home for which Oswego area seniors had hoped. The Oswegoland seniors have been nomads of sorts from their days at the old Traughber School site in Oswego, moving first to a temporary location offered by the Oswego Township and then to the Church of the Brethren in Boulder Hill. As soon as the group takes occupancy of the building in Oswego, it will need to move in all the items that have been stored, from gift shop inventory, the library books, the woodworking equipment, and other supplies. “It will be interesting to see this all come back and how it all comes back,” Barriball said. The seniors relied heavily on the goodwill of the people of Oswego. As they discover and develop this new home, they will have potential to recreate these well-loved programs and to develop programs they had only dreamed of in years past.
A meal program is a definite, as well as offering educational classes. In addition, Barriball plans for a pickleball practice court in the basement. “Painting, cooking, ceramics, all those things could come back,” Barriball said. “We have the grounds around the building, so we could start a garden club, too. There are tons of possibilities,” he said. They will need to hire help and enlist volunteers for unlimited projects, too. They are advertising for a custodian and may be hiring a program assistant.
A housewarming will be held April 8, to show off the new facility. More information is available at www.owegoseniorcenter.org and to volunteer or to apply for employment, call 630-554-5602.
“I just want to thank the Village of Oswego, the Oswego Township, and Kendall County for all their support. They have all been so helpful and they need to know that we appreciate it. It has worked out very well for us to be here at the Church of the Brethren. We appreciate them allowing us to use their space for our office space, and to hold events here. They have been terrific!” Barriball said.
Barb Nadeau is the community relations manager for the Voluntary Action Center of Northern Illinois, representing five counties. Barb has worked many years as a professional television and radio host, as well as a print and social media journalist, and as a volunteer coordination professional, networking amongst non-profit social service agencies throughout the State. She is a freelance writer and an elected alderperson in the city government of Plano. Contact Barb at bvnadeau@gmail.com.