There are many reasons to like the Elsie Stuhr Center, You’ll keep coming back again and again

Hello Beaverton Readers! This month I invite you to get “Stuhr Crazy” with me as I share a bit about The Elsie Stuhr Center, one of Beaverton’s most beloved gathering spaces for people 55 or better. This is likely not the first you’ve heard of this wonderful place, but perhaps I may offer a new perspective for those of you who are less familiar.

Every Wednesday from 8:30-11:00 A.M., I volunteer at “The Stuhr” as a Barista. A delightful mix of two of my favorite things, coffee and community.

Each week, without fail, a smile comes to my face as I enter the building, walk down the hall, and make my way to the Coffee Bar. As I pass by the open doors, I can’t help but peek in. The activity in each room is completely different from the next, with music, voices, and energy pouring out into the hall.

On any given day, I might walk past Zumba, Yoga, Ceramics, Book club, Texas Hold ‘em, Ukulele, peer support groups, Billiards, and let’s not forget Bingo!! The Wednesday Bingo crowd boasts 40 players on average. If Bingo is your thing, this is the place to be!

But not everyone comes for the activities and classes. Some folks come to socialize, laugh, and connect with others while enjoying a cup of coffee, cocoa, or tea. There’s something special about familiar faces and places, and many of the regulars have been coming here for 10 years or longer. Recently, I asked some of them what the Stuhr Center means to them.

For many, it’s a place to have coffee with the gang, meet new friends, feel seen, heard, and appreciated, learn new things, overcome boredom, stay fit and active, discuss current events, and remain connected to their community. For others, it has been their cure for loneliness and an antidote for depression. Where else can you find all of that under one roof? I wonder if Elsie Stuhr might have known the extent of what would become of her original initiative to establish the Tualatin Hills Park & Recreation District over seventy years ago.

Be sure to mark your calendar for one of the center’s most anticipated events, The Health and Wellness Resource Fair, on Saturday 9/26, 9am-12:30pm. My business, Reliable Senior Living Support, is participating as a vendor this year. If you read about me in last month’s issue, you already know: if you have questions, I have answers. I hope you will stop by to say hello and attend my presentation: “Rethinking Senior Living: Separating Yesterday’s Perceptions from Today’s Reality.” Start time is 11:45 am in the Willow room. Admission is free, so bring a friend and be ready to learn something new.

It has been said that we don’t stop playing because we grow old; rather, we grow old because we stop playing. If there’s any truth to that, maybe the folks at The Elsie Stuhr Center are on to something. I hope you will join us sometime and see for yourself what keeps people coming back time and again.

Honor Arnold provides trusted, local Senior Living expertise and guidance at no cost to you! Call Honor at (503) 985-2180 or email Honor@ReliableSeniorSupport.com