The new wooden institutional style sign with large gold lettering signifies that the 15-year-old Tri County Community Senior Center at 800 West Union Street has come of age.
Charlie “Spitball” Darling designed and installed the wooden structure in the landscaped area facing West Union Street, after Terry Rule, senior center director recruited a group of senior center supporters to help upgrade the image of the center.
Rule said the senior center is an institution in the community and it should have an image that matches the role it plays in the community.
“The new sign is in keeping with the age and status of the senior center,” Rule said.
The Tri-County Community Senior Center opened to local seniors on April 15, 2007 following an ten-year fund raising campaign by the late Helen Preiss. More than $850,000 in funds was raised to construct the building, including $325,000 in state economic development grants, sponsored by the City of Pacific, and more than $500,000 in local funds.
Some 400 individual gifts made up the local fund-raising effort. After two years of quilt raffles and bake sales, in 1999, Jennifer Reed and her youth service organization, the Missouri Service Organization, later named the Rainbow Girls donated the first substantial gift of $500.
On the day the center opened its doors, some 240 individuals signed the guest book and sat theater style as state, county and local officials celebrated the event.
The Pacific High jazz band entertained the gathering crowd for an hour, playing a medley of fifties era tunes. The Pacific High JROTC honor guard presented the colors to open the formal ceremony. Mary Beth Schmidt chaired the celebration.
Speaking to the packed dining hall, Presiding Commissioner Ed Hillhouse, who served as the first president of the senior center board of directors, told the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd that the senior center had become a reality due the determination of one individual Helen Preiss.
Sen. John Griesheimer presented new U.S. and Missouri flags that had been flown over the state capital to be displayed in the senior center dining room.
Rep. Michael Frame read a house resolution applauding the community and Helen Preiss for completing the project.
Mayor Herb Adams noted that we are all born with a mission but we don’t all recognize what that mission is.
“Pacific is blessed because Helen (Preiss) not only recognized what her mission was she stepped up to do what appeared impossible,” Adams said. “It appeared impossible to me in the beginning. I would not have taken it on.”
Carol Johnson, president of the board of aldermen read a resolution from the city recognizing Preiss for inspiring the donors and volunteers who make the dream a reality.
Present among the celebrants were Marie Buscher and Jessie Preiss, two members of the original committee that had created a Pacific Senior Center, bringing the senior meals program to the American Legion hall, thirty years earlier.
Some 120 individuals made reservations for the first meal that was served on Wednesday April 18. When the senior center raised funds to replace its original oven last month, a survey of center activities estimated that more than 200,000 noonday meals had been prepared for seniors. And the center had prepared meals for disaster victims, flood relief volunteers and first responders following the floods of 2015 and 2016.
Terry Rule is the third director to manager senior center, following Judith Gates and Jeanie Guffey.
“The senior center is an institution in the Tri County Community,” Rule said. “The new sign gives us a more institutional appearance.”
Terry Rule, senior center director said approximately twenty individual and local groups, who support the senior center, pitched in to erect a new sign. Donors were Bob Masson, Carol Johnson, Palmer Lawson, Henry Hahn, Dave Fox, Carol Robeerts, Pat Joyce, Walter Arnette, Carolyn Barfield, Brad Reed, Mary Beth Schmidt, Harry Palmer, Julie Jones, Vicki Leah, Dennis Netscher, Norbert Gildehaus, Kay LcClaire, the Pacific Eagles and the PMVARC ham Radio club.
It must be noted also that the Pacific Care Owners represented by Joe Dailey Ollie Preiss and Bob Schmidt were responsible for the donation of the land on which the Senior Center stands and without Their Invaluable Gift and hard work the project might not have been so successful! !!!!