By Ashley M. Casey

Staff Writer

While its clientele ranges from 60 and up, Canton Woods Senior Center is just entering middle age. The center is ringing in its 40th anniversary with a celebration Friday, Sept. 28 (see sidebar for details).

“Canton Woods has a proud tradition of being an active and dynamic senior center. The folks who founded the center understood the importance of social connections, and engaging in meaningful and rewarding activity throughout your life,” Canton Woods Director Ruth Troy wrote in an email to the Messenger.

Canton Woods was incorporated in 1978, but its home at 76 Canton St. dates back 10 years earlier. It was built in 1968 as a medical office, but after a few years, the healthcare tenants moved out.

With the help of funding from the Onondaga County Department of Aging and Youth, the Baldwinsville Senior Club purchased the building to give it a new life. The organization that would eventually become the Canton Woods Senior Center board held its first meeting Sept. 28,1978, was incorporated Nov. 28 of that year and approved its bylaws March 19, 1979.

“The name was selected for its descriptive nature in relation to the center’s location on Canton St. next to the woods,” then-assistant editor Linda S. Ryan wrote in the Nov. 8, 1978, issue of the Messenger. Ryan was the chair of Canton Woods’ building committee.

The title of the property was turned over to the village of Baldwinsville, and the towns of Van Buren and Lysander help the village fund the center.

By 1980, Canton Woods had already undergone two phases of major renovations, first with the addition of a kitchen to the building and then an expansion of the dining and activity areas. Nine years later, the center doubled the size of its kitchen, moved the office to the center of the building and added to the recreation area.

According to Troy, Canton Woods welcomed an average of 95 visitors per day in 2017 and 1,895 visits per month. While Canton Woods serves people as young as 60, the oldest active member is 98 years old.

“Amazing people walk through the center’s door every day,” Troy said. “I have the privilege of working with these people. … It is truly exciting serving well elderly who are engaged and actively participating in their community.”

Troy said there are challenges associated with serving different generations of senior citizens, but it is Canton Woods’ mission to help older people stay independent and active.

“According to the National Council on Aging, research shows that older adults who participate in senior center programs can learn to manage and delay the onset of chronic disease and experience measurable improvements in their physical, social, spiritual, emotional, mental and economic well-being,” Troy said. “The majority of seniors express a desire to age in place remaining in their own homes. Canton Woods helps make that possible for many.”

Troy said visitors have told her they rely on the center not only for social interaction and activities but for the services to which Canton Woods can connect them. Canton Woods often hosts insurance advisers, consumer advocates and tax help as well as AARP defensive driving courses and health screenings. Canton Woods is also a host site for the PEACE, Inc., senior nutrition program and the Food Bank of Central New York’s Food $en$e program.

“One senior shared that Canton Woods is one of the reasons she relocated to Baldwinsville from a nearby town,” Troy said of other feedback she has received. “We often hear how the center was so important when they have experienced a life changing event like the death of a spouse.”

To further the mission of Canton Woods Senior Center, Troy encourages people to donate their funds or their time.

“Canton Woods relies on volunteers to facilitate many of programs and activities,” she said. “If you have a special talent, skill or area of expertise, consider sharing that with our seniors.”

Volunteers offer a variety of programs and activities at the center. Retired Baldwinsville Central School District art teacher Mike Conway runs the art group, on whose work you can bid during the anniversary celebration. Tina Trainham teaches seniors to put their memories down on paper through the weekly Sharing Memories Writing Program. And Jerry Cali — who, according to a 1979 issue of the Messenger, had a gig performing at the Red Fox Lounge at the Holiday Inn on Buckley Road — will provide the entertainment for the Sept. 28 festivities.

At a celebration during Senior Center Week in May 1983, then-Van Buren Supervisor David Haas summed up the spirit of Canton Woods:

“The towns furnish the funding which is the body and the blood, but you people furnish the heart.”

Editor’s note: The Messenger would like to thank Town of Lysander Historian Bonnie Kisselstein for contributing photographs of the Canton Woods Senior Center dedication and Tom Tryniski for maintaining extensive newspaper archives at fultonhistory.com.