Tag Archives: Southeast Seattle Senior Center

Community

Legacy Letters Fights Isolation With Intergenerational Connections

by Amanda Ong

Legacy Letters is a friendship program in which people from different generations participate in activities that share their life stories. On Jan. 9, Legacy Letters will host a community-building reunion at SouthEast Seattle Senior Center to connect elders and youth. This event will feature new participants in their next series of sessions, which will take place weekly over the following five weeks, and introduce them in turn to previous Legacy Letters participants.

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News

South Seattle Group a Step Closer to Purchasing The Arches for Affordable Housing

by Elizabeth Turnbull

After a concerted effort to acquire the building and to stave off any potential displacement of families, the Brighton Development Group (BDG) is in the process of purchasing The Arches Apartments building in South Seattle.

Despite higher offers from other bidders, BDG now has the purchase of the building under contract after they promised to keep all of the families who are currently living there in place and not raise rents, according to Curtis Brown, who has been advocating for the purchase and is the executive director of SouthEast Seattle Senior Foundation. 

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News

Brighton Development Group Hopes to Keep The Arches Apartments Affordable

by Agueda Pacheco Flores

Before she could begin negotiations with Curtis Brown to sell The Arches Apartments, longtime South Seattle matriarch Barbara Chamberlain passed away. Now, three months later, the property is up for sale for a whopping $6.35 million, putting 25 families at risk of displacement. 

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Community

Departing Executive Director Reflects on Her Time at SouthEast Seattle Senior Center

by Amanda Ong

Lynda Greene, executive director of the SouthEast Seattle Senior Center (SESSC),  has handled everything from flooded toilets to busted heating systems. She even knows how to repair the sole of a shoe with tape. Greene never meant to stay so long — she was hired as an interim executive director and soon after taken on as the permanent executive director of the center. At the time, she believed she would stay for two to three years. Now, 13 years later, she is stepping down at the end of this year. 

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Community

Mark Bryant, Local Trainer and Powerlifter, Has More Medals Than He Can Count

by M. Anthony Davis

In the summer of 2021, Mark Bryant was convinced by a small group of his friends to compete in the upcoming powerlifting world championships. He hadn’t been sure he wanted to compete again. Bryant’s mother, Mary Chambers, had recently become severely ill, which led him to realize that he had never had family support him while he competed. Bryant is not married, he never had any children, and his brother passed away years ago.

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News

NEWS GLEAMS: Virtual Voter Registration, Mock Election, Grants for BIPOC, & More!

curated by Emerald Staff

A round-up of news and announcements we don’t want to get lost in the fast-churning news cycle!

Photo by CDC on Unsplash.com

SouthEast Seattle Senior Center to Host Vaccination Clinic This Saturday

The SouthEast Seattle Senior Center, at 4655 S. Holly St., Seattle, WA 98118, is holding a COVID-19 vaccination event this Saturday, Oct. 16, from 10:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.

The event  is not limited to seniors and includes a BBQ lunch for those who get vaccinated (whether an initial dose or a booster). No appointment necessary.

For more information call 206-722-0317.

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Community

No Elevator Means Limited Social Interaction for Southeast Seattle Senior Center Elders

by Carolyn Bick

For those of us with good knees, hips, and joints, not having access to an elevator isn’t a big deal. It’s fine — we’ll just take the stairs.

But for those who can’t walk up stairs — either due to bad joints or because they rely on  walkers and wheelchairs — not having access to an elevator is a major problem. And now that the elevator at the Southeast Seattle Senior Center (SESSC) has broken down for good, a number of the center’s elders are facing a significant amount of social isolation.

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News

Elders of Color Face Major Hurdles Getting COVID Vaccine

by Carolyn Bick

Every day, Lynda Greene and her fellow staffers at the SouthEast Seattle Senior Center field about 30–45 phone calls from community elders trying to schedule an appointment to get vaccinated against the novel coronavirus.

Most of these callers are crying. Most of them are Black.

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Features

Help for the Hungry: Mutual Aid Networks Thrive During Pandemic

 by Alexa Peters

In March of last year, shortly after the city shuttered the first time due to COVID-19, Seattle’s Maria Lamarca Anderson wanted take-out. She called up a BIPOC-owned Filipino restaurant she’d been meaning to try, Beacon Hill’s Musang Seattle.

“I said, ‘Hi, I’d like to order food.’ They said, ‘Oh, well, you can’t, but if you need food come and get it,’” said Lamarca Anderson.

She was confused, but Lamarca Anderson drove to the restaurant anyway. Once there, she learned that upon closing their businesses when the pandemic hit, Musang’s owner, Melissa Miranda, had pivoted from regular restaurant operations to form the Seattle Community Kitchen Collective with a few other local restaurant owners, including Chef Tarik Abdullah from Feed the People. Ever since, the coalition had been donating their kitchens and labor to make meals for anyone who’s hungry, 100% of the time.

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News

Senior Center Meal Program Works Every Weekday to Fill Need, But Challenges Remain

by Carolyn Bick

Shiny, blushed coral apples sit in rows on the tables in front of brown paper bags. Lined up almost perfectly straight, one right next to the other, they almost look like little cherubs, dutifully waiting their turn to leap into a bank of puffy clouds.

But they aren’t mythical creatures. They’re vital sources of nutrition for the more than 160 seniors who rely on the Southeast Seattle Senior Center’s hot meal program. On this particular Thursday morning, a handful of masked volunteers works to prepare the day’s meal, a steaming-hot, colorful mix of vegetables cooked with golden cubes of fried tofu served over a couple scoops of white rice.

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