Seniors look forward to more activities, space the new LCSS building will offer

CHEYENNE — The Laramie County Senior Services activity center, which has served the needs of seniors in the community since 1972, is getting a much-needed relocation and expansion.

Laramie County Senior Services is being relocated to a new building currently under construction. The construction project began Nov. 16, and staff is anticipating making the move earlier than they expected.

Erin LeBlanc, the LCSS director, said construction of the new Laramie County Senior Activity Center has been going smoothly, and the construction company is ahead of schedule. The majority of the construction has been funded by Laramie County’s sixth-penny sales tax.

“We were not expecting to move in until early next year,” LeBlanc said. “With everything continuing to progress, it looks like it’ll be done, hopefully, around October, with us moving in somewhere in November.”

LCSS provides three programs to seniors: the Nutrition Program, the National Caregiver Program and Senior Services.

Through the Nutrition Program — the largest of the three — LCSS serves breakfast five days a week and lunch seven days a week.

The company also has three satellite sites in Cheyenne where they serve meals, LeBlanc said. The center serves more than 60,000 meals per year.

The National Caregiver Program includes the medical loan closet, which allows LCSS to receive and loan out durable medical equipment to community members at no cost.

The third program offered, Senior Services, encompasses LCSS’s recreational activities, such as fitness, games and outings. The fitness opportunities include tai chi, yoga and reiki. Among several games offered are bingo, bridge, dominos and poker, and the outings vary. LeBlanc said the next outing will be to the Colorado Cherry Company in Longmont, Colorado.

Anne Fleming and Norma Prosser have been friends for about 40 years. They each visit LSCC at varying times per week to take part in the activities and catch up with each other over lunch, along with their friend Virginia.

Prosser has been going to the center for 10 years, she said, because she used to work for a company where she’d take her clients to the center for lunch due to its affordability. Now that she is retired, she goes to the center five times a week to take part in the fitness classes.

Prosser said she is looking forward to the new building because there will be more room for activities. The exercise rooms at the current building are small, and there is no outdoor area for events. The new building will have a yard where seniors can attend cookouts and other outdoor activities, she said.

“I’m hoping they’ll have more different types of things to do,” Prosser said. “Or different exercises. I would like to do Zumba, I’d like to do line dancing, I’d like to do a little more. I’m hoping they’ll have more activities besides bingo.”

Fleming has been going to LSCC for five years. She typically visits the center once a week for lunch with Prosser and Virginia. She said she is excited about the new building because it will be located much closer to her house, so she won’t have to drive as far.

“It’ll be good. … I think it’ll be similar to this, but a much nicer building,” Fleming said. “I don’t think there’s anything too new that they’re going to have. We’ve been in (the new) building because they had a barbecue out there, because this (location) doesn’t have a yard or an outside area.”

The center currently serves approximately 1,500 seniors per year. When they move to the new center, LeBlanc said they will hire more staff, and the building hours will also likely be extended.

LeBlanc said none of the programs will be removed or changed, but they will be enhanced and grow in variety to meet the needs of seniors.

“We’re always open to seeing what our seniors want and seeing if we can provide that here,” LeBlanc said. “So nothing will change in that way when we move to the new center because, like I said, we want to grow and offer more things that our seniors are looking for.”

After the move, the current location will be repurposed to be another satellite where people can go to get breakfast or lunch.