GLSS employees and volunteers for the evening; Katherine Prouty, Andrea Chaves and Eileen Burk. (Photo by Bob Roche)
By Bridget Turcotte
LYNN — Greater Lynn Senior Services is celebrating 40 years.
An anniversary celebration was held at the Lynn Museum on Thursday evening. The Lynn Police and Fire departments, city council, the Department of Public Works and partners of GLSS were invited to celebrate the milestone.
Paul Crowley, executive director, stressed that while they’re celebrating how far the nonprofit organization has come, they’re also thinking about what’s to come.
“A big part of what we wanted to do was applaud the people in the community that have supported us over the last 40 years,” said Crowley. “Then pivot to the future and say ‘what does the next 40 years look like?”
Since its incorporation in 1976, it has adapted to the changing needs of seniors, providing community health and social services to help people maintain independence. In its next 40 years, Crowley said the focus will shift to serving people of all ages and abilities.
“The entire community plays a role in all of this,” he said. “We are actively in partnerships with the (Lynn Community) Health Center, Element Care, the Housing Authority, Lynn’s EDIC, the mayor’s office. We work with the Lynn Shelter Association, My Brother’s Table. There are just so many organizations that we are actively involved with. It’s a community effort.”
But as time has progressed, the core values of the organization have remained the same, which Crowley said is a big part of why he believes it has been successful.
“The spirit of collaboration that exists between us and other community partners, the innovation came from Vince Lique, who ran GLSS for 24 years until he died,” Crowley said. “He was quite a visionary. He came up with a lot of great ideas that formed my approach to things.”
He estimated that GLSS serves more than 3,000 seniors each day with homecare-related matters, in addition to the 3,000 rides it provides to seniors who need transportation services.
“On a daily basis we do about 6,000 incredible things,” he said. “We’re nostalgic about what has happened but we’re really focusing our attention on what we need to do to continue. There’s a lot of excitement about what we do, going forward.”
Bridget Turcotte can be reached at [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @BridgetTurcotte.